Raleigh staff outline upgrades to emergency alerts, training and incident communications

Raleigh communications staff briefed the City Council in a work session on emergency public information improvements, including expanded training, draft message templates and closer coordination with Wake County to speed geographically targeted alerts.

Rand Northam, communications department assistant director for public affairs, told the council: “Get the right message to the right people at the right time so they can make the right decisions to save lives.” He and Communications Director Robin Diekel described changes the city has made since Northam joined staff to centralize public information officer (PIO) responsibilities and prepare for larger incidents.

The presentation said the city follows the National Incident Management System (NIMS) for incident operations and that PIOs are treated as first responders who must be ready nights, weekends and holidays. The communications team has developed draft messages and templates intended to speed messaging to residents and lead with actions people should take to remain safe.

Northam and Diekel said the city…