Todays' Walton Sun business section has several articles about communications during a hurricane. Highlights are that they had no idea what they were doing during Ivan, but that all is good now.
I've seen several articles like this since Ivan mentioning the County, the TV and radio stations, etc. and how they did the best they could to get news out - which was absolutely nothing.
No mention of the message board, GraytonBeach.com, etc - about all the news Kurt got out and others on the board. No mention of the photos that were posted the days following Ivan. No mention of all the locals on this board that went and checked on people's property and reported back here. :roll:
If the reporters don't even know the scoop, what's the chance the Governement does? :roll: :roll:
Hey Kurt! You heard from any of these braniacs?
I've seen several articles like this since Ivan mentioning the County, the TV and radio stations, etc. and how they did the best they could to get news out - which was absolutely nothing.
No mention of the message board, GraytonBeach.com, etc - about all the news Kurt got out and others on the board. No mention of the photos that were posted the days following Ivan. No mention of all the locals on this board that went and checked on people's property and reported back here. :roll:
If the reporters don't even know the scoop, what's the chance the Governement does? :roll: :roll:
Hey Kurt! You heard from any of these braniacs?
If preparation is the key to success, Walton County Public Information Director Ken Little believes the county is on the right track for the upcoming hurricane season.
After Hurricane Ivan, the Walton County Tourist Development Council took a survey that asked, ?How did we do? Did we meet your needs??
?The results were surprisingly good,? Little said.
But he knew there were areas that needed improvement.
Little and his assistant, Sara Comander held meetings with area media representatives and Bay and Okaloosa county? emergency management personnel to discover what else needed to be done.
Communications before, during and after the storm were vital, but many county residents had evacuated far beyond the listening area and information about what was going back home was hard to come by.
To establish relationships with stations prior to this hurricane season, Comander mailed letters to 50 radio and television stations and received responses from between 12 and 15 stations, including Birmingham, Atlanta, Montgomery and Nashville. The county will include the names and call signs of participating radio and TV stations in promotional material. In the event of another evacuation, the county will e-mail updates to those outlets.
The Emergency Operations Center in DeFuniak Springs ran into its own communications difficulties last year when it could not send out e-mail. Little had worked with local media outlets to build lists of e-mail addresses anticipating the need to get information to multiple outlets.
The server was on the third floor of the courthouse, high and dry, but when the power went out, the backup generator did not come on. The fuel tanks had been removed during a construction project at the courthouse. Fortunately, the EOC had auxiliary power and the fax machine was put into service to send out information. But with power outages throughout the county, Little resorted to having updates delivered to area radio stations by sheriff?s deputies.
This year, things will be different. :roll:
Little plans to change the Walton County Web site during an emergency response so users will go directly to information about the storm.
And, there will be adequate fuel for the generator, he said.