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County planner briefs Copperton on 'Up Ahead' app, IPAWS and emergency messaging best practices
Summary
Salt Lake County municipal planner Madison Warner briefed the council on emergency-communications options including the opt-in 'Up Ahead' app for local updates and IPAWS for life-safety alerts, recommended PIO designation, liaison lists, pre-written third-grade-level messages and FEMA/NIMS training.
Madison Warner, municipal planner with Salt Lake County Emergency Management, walked the Copperton Town Council through emergency-communications tools and best practices, distinguishing the opt-in 'Up Ahead' app from federally managed IPAWS alerts and explaining internal steps for incident response.
Warner described 'Up Ahead' as an opt-in messaging tool useful for non–life-safety notices (for example, localized water breaks or road closures) and contrasted it with IPAWS, which can reach everyone in an area without prior signup for life-safety evacuations because ‘‘it takes a cell tower and basically blasts everyone in the area.’’ She recommended jurisdictions maintain liaison contact lists, designate a council PIO to coordinate messaging with MSD and county PIOs, prepare pre-written message templates at a third-grade reading level, and consider Wireless Priority Service (WPS) signups for critical responders.
Warner also outlined EOC briefings, RFIs (requests for information), ESFs (Emergency Support Functions) and recommended FEMA ICS/NIMS training for elected officials. She offered to circulate one-sheets and to coordinate tabletop exercises for Copperton.
Council asked questions about who would serve as backups and how messaging would be coordinated; Warner said she will keep contact information for the town’s backups and provide templates and training invitations.
What’s next: Warner will provide templates, training invitations, and contact-list guidance for the town to use in future incidents.
