A case study evaluating the use of the alerting system Reverse 911 during the Colorado fires. Was it effective?

Alerting System Reverse 911
Name:
Institution:
Reverse 911 is a registered trademark of a communications company known as Cascadian, an organization used by the United States to communicate to people in defined geographical region. In 1960, this telephone company began dispatching systems for telephones (Strawderman et al., 2012). This system makes calls for the appropriate agency for public safety, such as Police, Emergency Management, Public Health, Fire and Sheriff. It is designed to notify the affected area of any emergency by sending a message through the phone system (Strawderman et al., 2012). In the wake of the Colorado fires, Cassidian pointed out that there are other telephone notification systems out there, which are said to have failed. Whether it is sharing general information or warning people of potential hazards this emergency notification service facilitates effective and fast communication within the public. The application, which is nationally acclaimed, combines technologies of database and mapping, and they enable operations by the military, enforcement of the law, fire/EMS, and managing emergency. It helps in identifying visually and alert people automatically in certain geographical locations (Chandler, 2010). The aim of this research paper is to analyze Reverse 911 alerting system, find out if it is effective and if not, find out why it is not effective.
This paper will analyze this alerting system using the Colorado Wildfires. First, I will look at the most recent one, that of 2012. Authorities acknowledged that twelve percent of the people affected by this fire never got the Reverse 911 call giving them a warning to evacuate. A misconception about this notification system left some fire evacuees from Waldo Canyon waiting for the emergency call that never came (The gazette, 2012). Some people had already parked and were waiting for the emergency call telling them to evacuate. This misconception is that, if your landline has been listed, there is no need to register for this emergency call. This is not the case because some landlines are automatically listed in the Reverse 911 database, but some do not make it there. The spokesperson of this agency said they were trying to understand why some of the numbers do not make it to the database, and they are doing so by analyzing some of these numbers. However, he recommended that everyone should ensure that he registers his telephone number.
Additionally, some article authors believe that the Colorado wildfire deaths should be blamed on the malfunction of the system. The Reverse 911 calls worked in the 2012 Colorado fire but were not completely effective. The reason for this conclusion is that, if the system worked properly then it should have notified everyone in that area, but it did not. However, the blame can also be transferred to the public because it would be easier to communicate with everyone using cell phones but most of the cell phones are not registered in the system. If everyone can register the cell phone, then the call can reach everyone and people can evacuate on time.
The 2012 Colorado wildfire was far worse than the one that happened in 2010 and 2011. This massive fire, was eased with the help of lighter winds and cooler temperatures, destroyed many home and forced vast numbers of people to flee. The crews battling this deadly fire ranked it as the most destructive in the history of the state. When looking at the effectiveness of the 911 reverse systems, it is evident that it was less effective during the 2010 wildfire as compared to its effectiveness in 2011 and 2012. The reason for this lack of effectiveness is due to the failure of the systems. These systems’ failure are attributed to human error, flawed data and blemished effort to get citizens without landlines to register cellular phones. The failure of the systems in 2010 led to confusion among the rescuers because they did not know the people who were not yet evacuated and the areas not completely evacuated.
These Colorado wildfires do not happen exactly at the same time every year. In 2012, the Colorado wildfires included separate fires and they happened between June and July 2012. In 2011, experienced separate wildfires between the months of March and June (Coffman, 2011). However, in April, they experienced just one wildfire but in June, they experienced six wildfires. In 2010, Colorado experienced one great wildfire known as the Fourmile Canyon Fire, and it continued for eleven days (Spotts, 2010).
When looking at the area affected by these fires, one can finally understand the seriousness of these fires. These fires cover vast areas, thus affecting many individuals. For example, the most recent one, the 2012 Colorado wildfire, had many separate fire, and it covered vast areas of land. For example, the Little Sand Fire was a 22,400-acre fire and was located in San Juan National Forest (Coffman, 2011). The Treasure Fire of 2012 burned around 420 acres of United States forestland and was located in Lake County (Solution, 2012).
The Weber Fire burned approximately 10,000 acres in Montezuma County. This fire led to evacuation orders one hundred and forty households and three hundred and ninety more received pre-evacuation orders (Solution, 2012). The Waldo Canyon fire, also of 2012, started ten miles northwest of Colorado Springs and was contained on 15365 acres of United States Forestland (Muskal, 2012). This fire led to the evacuation of around 32,000 residents of Woodland Park, Colorado Springs and Manitou Springs, and it partially evacuated the U.S. air force academy (Crawford, 2012). After firefighter overcame the fire, it had already destroyed over three hundred and fifty homes, thus making this fire the most destructive one in Colorado state history. There was also the High Park fire that happened in June the same year. The inferno torched over 87000 acres, leaving one person dead and destroying 259 homes (Muskal, 2012). Finally, in 2012, there was the Flagstaff wildfire, which was located in the Boulder County (CNN, 2011). This fire happened around July of this year, and it was contained after it had burned around 300 acres (The gazette, 2012). In June 2012, these Colorado forest fires were declared federal disasters. In 2011, there were eleven wild fir...