As a massive wildfire ripped through parts of Northern California last week — one of 650 new fires in the state since August 15 — emergency officials in Napa County turned to a messaging platform to warn residents to “remain vigilant,” should they need to evacuate.

作为一个巨大的野火经过上周加州北部的部分撕开-在国家650楼新的火灾之一，因为8月15日-纳帕县紧急情况官员转向了短信平台，以提醒居民“保持警惕”，就应该需要疏散。

But when authorities tried to send the alert, using a private service called Everbridge, they discovered a terminal error message, the Los Angeles Times reported. They were forced at the last minute to switch to Nixle, a similar but less robust platform also owned by Everbridge, ultimately causing fewer residents to receive the critical warning. The blaze known as the LNU Lightning Complex has since killed five people in Napa and Solano counties, and burned 375,000 acres of parched land.

但是，当政府试图发送警报，使用称为Everbridge的p rivate服务时，他们发现了一个终端的错误消息， 洛杉矶时报报道 。 他们被迫在最后一刻改用Nixle，这也是Everbridge拥有的类似但功能不那么强大的平台，最终导致更少的居民受到严重警告。 此后，被称为LNU闪电综合体的大火在纳帕和索拉诺县杀死了5人 ，并烧毁了37.5万英亩的干旱土地。

Mass notification systems, from air raid sirens to emergency television broadcasts, have evolved over the years. Over the past two decades, many municipalities have added mobile alerts to their emergency arsenals as well. Now, jurisdictions across the country contract with software vendors to push emergency alerts to people’s phones, email, and social media feeds.

多年来，从空袭警报器到紧急电视广播的大规模通知系统已经发展起来。 在过去的二十年中，许多市政当局也在其应急武库中添加了移动警报。 现在，全国各地的司法管辖区都与软件供应商签约，将紧急警报发送到人们的电话，电子邮件和社交媒体源。

At their best, these free technologies can broaden access to critical information, translating life-saving messages into multiple languages or including helpful evacuation maps. Last week, Harris County, Texas, used Nixle to tell citizens to prepare emergency supplies as Hurricane Laura bore down on parts of the Gulf Coast. The town manager of Yountville, California, also used Nixle to update residents on containment of the LNU Lightning Complex fire in nearby areas.

这些最好的免费技术可以最大程度地扩展对关键信息的访问范围，将挽救生命的消息翻译成多种语言，或者包括有用的疏散地图。 上周，得克萨斯州哈里斯郡(Harris County)利用尼克尔(Nixle) 告诉市民 ，在劳拉飓风袭击墨西哥湾沿岸部分地区时，他们准备了应急用品。 加利福尼亚州扬特维尔的镇长也使用Nixle向居民介绍了附近地区LNU闪电综合体大火的遏制情况。

But these alert services can also have shortfalls: They depend on mass adoption to be truly successful and may lure people into a false sense of security. Throughout the past several years, local emergency officials have experienced numerous challenges, including technology glitches and infrastructure failures.

但是，这些警报服务也可能有不足之处：它们依赖于大规模采用才能真正获得成功，并可能诱使人们产生虚假的安全感。 在过去的几年中，当地的应急官员经历了许多挑战 ，包括技术故障和基础设施故障。

“Who uses what is often unclear, and it has created a situation where some people might believe that their community’s emergency alerting systems are more extensive, capable, and timely than they actually are,” Hamilton Bean, an associate professor at the University of Colorado Denver who studies wireless emergency alerts, told OneZero.

科罗拉多大学副教授汉密尔顿·宾(Hamilton Bean)说：“谁使用了通常不清楚的东西，这造成了一种情况，有些人可能认为他们的社区的紧急警报系统比实际情况更广泛，更强大，更及时。”研究无线紧急警报的丹佛告诉OneZero 。

Whether technology platforms complement or complicate emergency messaging is a point of debate.

技术平台是否补充或复杂化紧急消息传递是争论的焦点。

The emergency alert landscape is largely run by FEMA, which authenticates certain messages and routes them to the public via the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS), including Amber alerts, mobile push alerts that emit a loud sound on nearby phones in the event of a local child abduction. Amber alerts fall under wireless emergency alerts (WEAs) that are broadcast from nearby cellular towers to devices within a targeted area. (Some of these alerts can be disabled on your phone.) WEAs also cover imminent threats, public safety issues, and presidential alerts. The latter struck a nerve in 2018 when the first nationwide test was issued to millions of U.S. devices, highlighting the fact that citizens cannot opt out of the president’s messages. Jurisdictions must be approved by FEMA as “alerting authorities” to utilize IPAWS; today, there are more than 1,500 alerting authorities throughout the country.

紧急警报情况主要由FEMA运行，FEMA对某些消息进行身份验证并通过集成的公共警报和警告系统 (IPAWS)将其路由到公众，包括Amber警报 ，移动推送警报，以在事件发生时在附近的电话上发出响亮的声音绑架当地儿童的行为。 琥珀色警报属于无线紧急警报(WEA)，该警报从附近的蜂窝基站广播到目标区域内的设备。 (其中一些警报可以在您的手机上禁用。)WEA还涵盖迫在眉睫的威胁，公共安全问题和总统警报。 后者在2018年向数百万美国设备发布了首次全国范围的测试时感到不安，突显出公民无法选择退出总统的信息这一事实。 辖区必须由FEMA批准为使用IPAWS的“预警机构”； 如今，全国有1500多个警报部门 。

FEMA approves private software platforms to disseminate IPAWS alerts for authorities at state, local, territorial, and tribal levels. These platforms, 25 of which had been approved as of May, can deliver messages ranging from traffic notices to FEMA-regulated threat warnings and must be compliant with FEMA standards and protocols for dispatching messages over multiple networks.

FEMA批准了私有软件平台，以向州，地方，地区和部落级别的权威机构分发IPAWS警报。 这些平台(截至5月已经批准了25个平台)可以传递从交通通告到FEMA管制的威胁警告等各种消息，并且必须符合 FEMA标准和协议，以便在多个网络上分发消息。

While these platforms are capable of sending IPAWS alerts, they can also transmit less urgent messages. When Santa Clara hosted the Super Bowl in 2016, for example, police employed Nixle to share visitor information.

虽然这些平台能够发送IPAWS警报 ，但它们也可以传输不太紧急的消息。 例如，当圣塔克拉拉(Santa Clara)在2016年举办超级碗比赛时， 警察雇用了尼克斯(Nixle)分享游客信息。

An alert within the IPAWS ecosystem would get pushed to local devices through nearby cellular towers, but only subscribers to a service like Nixle would receive these other types of messages. The patchwork of private platforms can lead to confusion, from both authorities and citizens. What type of alerts reach everyone? Which service should people subscribe to?

IPAWS生态系统中的警报将通过附近的蜂窝塔发送到本地设备，但是只有像Nixle这样的服务的订户才能收到这些其他类型的消息。 私人平台的错落有致可能导致当局和公民的困惑。 哪种类型的警报可以到达所有人？ 人们应该订阅哪种服务？

In 2018, when the historic Camp Fire destroyed the town of Paradise, California, the Butte County Sheriff’s Office used a private service called CodeRED to deploy emergency alerts to people’s cellphones. The system requires people to sign up online or download an app, and fewer than half of Paradise’s 27,000 residents were subscribed when the wildfire hit, according to Frontline. More than a third of individuals who had registered for CodeRED never received the notice to evacuate, the Los Angeles Times reported that month. At least 85 people were killed in the fire, which razed nearly 19,000 buildings and left 90% of Paradise in ashes.

2018年，当历史悠久的营火摧毁了加利福尼亚州的天堂镇时，比尤特县警长办公室使用了一项名为CodeRED的私人服务，将紧急警报部署到人们的手机上。 据Frontline称 ，该系统要求人们在线注册或下载应用程序，而大火袭击时，天堂的27,000名居民中不到一半被订阅。 《洛杉矶时报》当月报道称，已经为CodeRED注册的个人中，有超过三分之一的人从未收到过撤离的通知。 至少有85人在大火中丧生，大火将近19,000座建筑物夷为平地，并将天堂的90％烧成灰烬。

The decision by the Butte County Sheriff’s Office to not send an evacuation WEA through IPAWS during the Camp Fire — instead pushing a CodeRED cellular alert meant only for subscribers — was widely criticized in the wildfire’s aftermath. A state audit determined that emergency managers had “limited awareness and understanding of the WEA System and outdated information regarding WEA’s technical capabilities,” reported the San Francisco Chronicle. Records revealed that warnings transmitted by Butte County authorities reached fewer than 6,200 of Paradise’s 27,000 residents, with many of those calls going to voicemail. The Los Angeles Times reported that much of the town relied on texts from “alarmed relatives,” neighbors, door knocks, and messages blared over police loudspeakers.

野火过后， 人们广泛批评巴特县警长办公室在营火期间不通过IPAWS发送疏散WEA的决定，而是推送仅适用于订户的CodeRED蜂窝警报。 《 旧金山纪事报 》 报道说，州审计发现紧急情况管理人员“对WEA系统的了解和了解有限，并且有关WEA技术能力的信息过时” 。 记录显示，比尤特县当局发送的警告通知天堂的27,000名居民中，不到6200名，其中许多电话都通过语音邮件发送。 《 洛杉矶时报》报道说，该镇大部分地区都依赖“受警惕的亲戚”，邻居，敲门声以及警号上大肆宣传的信息。

“We like to say that we’re just one tool in the toolbox,” Harper added. “Governments with the authority to protect the public should be using multiple modes [of alerting].”

“我们想说我们只是工具箱中的一种工具，” Harper补充说。 “有权保护公众的政府应该使用多种[警报方式]。”

Whether technology platforms complement or complicate emergency messaging is a point of debate. In his book, Mobile Technology and the Transformation of Public Alert and Warning, Bean “repeatedly demonstrates the ways in which the current WEA system fails to meet the public’s expectations of mobile technology,” Elizabeth Ellcessor, an associate professor of media studies at the University of Virginia, wrote in a recent book review. “Because of the multimedia and interactive capacities of consumer devices and apps, ‘people presume that mobile emergency notification processes are more robust than they actually are.’”

技术平台是否补充或复杂化紧急消息传递是争论的焦点。 该大学媒体研究副教授Elizabeth Ellcessor在他的《 移动技术与公共警报和警告的转变》一书中“反复展示了当前的WEA系统无法满足公众对移动技术的期望的方式。”弗吉尼亚的作家在最近的书评中写道 。 “由于消费类设备和应用程序具有多媒体和交互功能，'人们认为移动紧急通知流程比实际情况更健壮。'”

The abundance of nonemergency alerts that can be pushed to your phone has also raised concern about “message fatigue.” At a certain point, customers may tire of daily texts and simply unsubscribe from receiving these non-IPAWS alerts. “When Covid kicked off, we saw massive uptick to the tune of millions of messages per day across the globe,” Brain Toolan, head of public sector initiatives at Everbridge, told OneZero. Following California’s 2017 wildfire season, Nixle reported a surge in registrations, hitting 15,000 sign-ups per hour at one point. But come March and April, the company noticed a significant spike in opt-outs.

可以发送到手机的大量非紧急警报也引起了对“消息疲劳”的担忧。 在某个时候，客户可能会厌倦每日的短信，并简单地取消订阅这些非IPAWS警报。 Everbridge的公共部门计划负责人Brain Toolan对OneZero表示： “当Covid开始时，我们每天在全球范围内看到大量的消息增加。” 在加利福尼亚州2017年的野火季节之后， Nixle报告注册人数激增，每小时达到15,000个注册人数。 但是到了三月和四月，该公司注意到选择退出的数量激增。

Both Everbridge and OnSolve told OneZero they advise municipalities on how to attract and retain customers to increase the likelihood that residents will receive alerts. This includes webinars about the content and frequency of messages, as well as marketing tips. “We have mountains of propaganda that we give our clients, [as well as] templates for TV and radio,” Harper said.

Everbridge和OnSolve都告诉OneZero，他们建议市政当局如何吸引和留住客户，以增加居民收到警报的可能性。 这包括有关消息的内容和频率的网络研讨会以及营销技巧。 哈珀说：“我们为客户提供了无数的宣传，以及电视和广播的模板。”

Harper said OnSolve investigated why fewer than two-thirds of CodeRED subscribers in Paradise received an evacuation alert. The company found that the wildfire destroyed last-mile communication infrastructure, preventing these messages from going through. (While OnSolve relies on local infrastructure, such as cellular towers, to relay calls and alerts, it maintains public safety–grade data centers across the country to support its own platforms.) Just months prior, the FCC expressed concern about service and power dropouts in California impairing public safety messaging. Many of these platforms also support non-text or call-based alerts, such as social media posts, but those channels also require some connectivity.

哈珀说，OnSolve调查了为何天堂中不到三分之二的CodeRED用户收到疏散警报。 该公司发现野火破坏了最后一英里的通信基础设施，从而阻止了这些消息的传播。 (虽然OnSolve依靠蜂窝电话塔等本地基础设施来中继呼叫和警报，但它在全国范围内维护着公共安全级数据中心以支持其自己的平台。)就在几个月前， FCC对服务和电源中断表示了担忧在加利福尼亚州损害公共安全信息。 这些平台中的许多平台还支持非文本或基于呼叫的警报，例如社交媒体帖子，但这些渠道也需要一定的连通性。

“We like to say that we’re just one tool in the toolbox,” Harper added. “Governments with the authority to protect the public should be using multiple modes [of alerting].”

“我们想说我们只是工具箱中的一种工具，” Harper补充说。 “有权保护公众的政府应该使用多种[警报方式]。”

Emergency alert platforms have the capacity to save lives, but like all technological solutions, they’re not a panacea for problems that require broader investment. On August 21, three California members of Congress — representatives Jerry McNerny, Anna G. Eshoo, and Doris Matsui — wrote FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, demanding to know what California is doing to mitigate communication outages during this year’s wildfire season.

紧急警报平台具有挽救生命的能力，但像所有技术解决方案一样，它们并不是解决需要更广泛投资的问题的灵丹妙药。 8月21日，加利福尼亚州的三名国会议员，分别是杰里·麦克纳尼，安娜·埃斯霍(Anna G. Eshoo)和多丽丝·松井(Doris Matsui)， 写信给FCC主席阿吉特·派 ( Ajit Pai) ，要求知道加利福尼亚在减轻今年野火季节的通信中断方面正在做什么。

On top of questions about the efficacy of private alert systems are questions about whether they’re truly equitable.

在有关私人警报系统功效的问题之上，还有关于它们是否真正公平的问题。

Jeannette Sutton, an associate professor for the College of Emergency Preparedness, Homeland Security, and Cybersecurity at the University at Albany SUNY who studies communication around disasters and public risk, says disparities in emergency alerts can materialize in numerous ways. One primary mode of inequality is the cost of these platforms, which may not be affordable for rural communities with a limited tax base. It’s unclear how much these products cost to municipalities, on average.

奥尔巴尼纽约州立大学应急准备，国土安全和网络安全学院副教授珍妮特·萨顿(Jeannette Sutton)说，研究灾害和公共风险方面的沟通的方式可以通过多种方式实现。 不平等的一种主要模式是这些平台的成本，这对于税基有限的农村社区可能无法承受。 目前尚不清楚这些产品平均要花给市政当局多少钱。

“Most customers only pay a couple thousand dollars,” said Toolan, adding that Nixle’s pricing structure is based on population size.

Toolan说：“大多数客户只支付数千美元。” Nixle的定价结构基于人口规模。

Smaller counties may also be understaffed, unable to familiarize themselves with these platforms. An Everbridge reference guide published by the Virginia Emergency Management Association for Fairfax County suggests that operating the system is no simple feat. The real-life consequences of a misstep were realized in 2018 when a Hawaii emergency employee selected the wrong option from a dropdown bar, issuing a false missile alert to hundreds of thousands of island residents.

较小的县也可能人手不足，无法熟悉这些平台。 费尔法克斯县弗吉尼亚紧急情况管理协会发布的Everbridge参考指南表明，操作该系统绝非易事。 失误的现实后果是在2018年实现的，当时一名夏威夷紧急工作人员从下拉菜单中选择了错误的选项， 向成千上万的岛上居民发出了虚假的导弹警报 。

Additionally, it’s unclear how many of these platforms support messages and multimedia in multiple languages; WEAs only became Spanish compatible in 2019. OnSolve offers translation services for more than 20 languages, and Nixle allows users to register for English or Spanish alerts. An FCC task force most recently met in 2019 to recommend best practices for communicating emergency alerts to non-English speakers and disabled people.

此外，尚不清楚这些平台中有多少支持多种语言的消息和多媒体。 WEA 仅在2019年才与西班牙语兼容 。OnSolve 提供 20多种语言的翻译服务 ，Nixle 允许用户注册英语或西班牙语警报。 FCC工作组最近一次会议是在2019年举行的会议上 ，提出了向非英语使用者和残疾人传达紧急警报的最佳做法的建议。

“I think they could potentially enhance and reinforce public warning processes, but stakeholders need to better understand the capabilities of these systems and how they can best be configured,” Bean said. “Communities need to better understand how these systems work, who sends what, [and] what can be expected.”

Bean说：“我认为它们可以潜在地增强和加强公共预警流程，但利益相关者需要更好地了解这些系统的功能以及如何对其进行最佳配置。” “社区需要更好地了解这些系统如何工作，谁发送了什么以及[和]可以预期的东西。”

All this said,” Bean added, “I think people also need to be careful to not rely solely on their mobile device for early warning.”

所有这些都说明了这一点，”比恩补充说，“我认为人们还需要注意不要仅依靠移动设备来进行预警。”