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County emergency managers review alert system after gas leak and tsunami notices; urge cities to use unified AC Alert
Summary
Alameda County emergency staff reviewed AC Alert and Genesys Protect mapping after coordination issues during a December gas leak and a recent tsunami warning, described limitations of WEA messaging and translation, and urged cities to enroll and train on the county's unified platform to reduce fragmentation.
Brent Blazer, Alameda County's emergency manager, presented a countywide review of mass notification capabilities and post‑incident lessons learned following a December gas leak and recent tsunami notifications.
Blazer outlined the county's AC Alert system (Everbridge) and how it links to FEMA's IPAWS for Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA), plus phone, SMS and email channels. He explained that some local jurisdictions used separate subscriptions or platforms during the gas leak, which caused coordination gaps and public confusion about who sent which messages.
"When you start talking about public information, which might be additional information as a result of a particular incident, that's when we're using social media, conventional media and other resources," Blazer said, and he noted technical constraints on WEA — limited characters and primary English/Spanish support — that shape message content.
Using the gas leak as an example, OES staff said notifications were initially sent from a city subscription rather than the county system, which slowed unified information delivery. Blazer described steps to improve reach, including moving toward an opt‑out resident database update (Resident Connect) to increase enrollment and a feasibility study on adding sirens, digital signage and advanced language translation capabilities.
Captain Matt Frusia of OES emphasized the human and training factors: AC Alert is provided at no cost to jurisdictions, he said, but city staff must be trained and willing to use the shared system for it to work effectively across boundaries.
Supervisors and residents asked about linking sirens and digital billboards, expanding multilingual messaging and outreach to increase public subscription. Staff recommended presentations to the Mayors Conference and city managers association to promote county tools and training.
Next steps: county staff will continue enrollment outreach, hold cross‑jurisdictional trainings, implement an opt‑out data ingestion process to boost coverage, and return with an updated alerting plan and suggested exercises.
