Yesterday over 75 emergency response professionals representing fire, law enforcement, municipal emergency coordinators, public works and others involved in critical incident management met at the Lancaster County Public Safety Training Center just outside Salunga. They were there to hear expert presenters talk about engaging social media to communicate with citizens in emergencies. The program was presented by the South Central Task Force, in conjunction with Harrisburg Area Community College and Millersville University’s Center for Disaster Research and Education.

One of the subject matter presenters, Dave Statter, showed an exceptional video featuring retired Bellingham, Washington fire chief, Bill Boyd. Firefighters will immediately recognize Statter as the personality behind STATter911, the exceptionally written daily reporting resource about successes, incidents and “lessons learned” in the public safety sector.

In the video, Boyd, an experienced fire chief and incident commander, demonstrates that response management today depends on using social media to meet information demands.

As we watched the video, we thought instantly about the horrid information dissemination of just a few weeks ago when the Columbia Water Company failed to meet information demands.

Take a look at the video and ask yourself, why doesn’t the water company use the power of social media to meet information demands during incidents? Why doesn’t the borough?

• Lessons learned from “do not consume” water notification

• Lessons learned from “do not consume” water notification – Part II