Because most emergency alert messages are succinct and convey only minimal information, many campuses have trained those in their communities — after they receive the initial emergency alert — to immediately go to the campus’ Web site for additional instructions. That process may be all well and good during a small incident. However, when a major disaster occurs and the world is focusing on your campus and visiting your Web site, your site could become overloaded and crash.

“We can take 500,000 to 1 million hits per minute,” says David Burns, UCLA’s emergency manager. “Still, we know it’s likely we’re going to experience significant stress worldwide. Everyone is going to go to the UCLA.edu page.”

In light of this challenge, UCLA has embarked on a pilot project with a major social networking company that will allow UCLA’s Web site to be mirrored on their site during a crisis. “Anyone who has signed up to a new page called UCLA911 as a friend will be able to see our emergency message,” he adds.

Burns says, “During Virginia Tech and Katrina, people were using social networking sites to exchange information live — millions simultaneously.” The concern Burns and others had with this was that those individuals, who might have very good intentions, could inadvertently disseminate misinformation.

According to Burns, Sara Cohen, who is a Katrina survivor and a UCLA graduate student, came up with the idea of partnering with a social networking Web site. The site’s extensive amount of bandwidth would practically guarantee UCLA’s Web site would remain operational during a disaster. Additionally, UCLA could control the message and provide accurate, credible information. And the best part of it all? The solution is free.

How this project eventually works out remains to be seen. Burns hopes that UCLA’s experience will be a template other campuses can eventually follow.

In the meantime, another way to prevent your campus’ site from crashing during a disaster is to temporarily water it down so it has very little graphics and script (during the incident). Doing this means more people can visit the site without stressing the network.

Also, Web sites should be redundant, being hosted (as back-up) in an off-site location where there are fewer hazards.

Related Articles:

• Can You Hear Me Now?
• Text Message Troubleshooting: 4 Challenges Your Campus Should Address
• Take It From the Experts When Crafting Your Messages
• Best Practices Breakdown
• Web Exclusive: Sample Emergency Alert Messages Your Mass Notification Cheat Sheet
• Web Exclusive: CS Mass Notification Study Results
• Web Exclusive: Sample Opt-Out Language
• Virginia Tech 1 Year Later: How Campuses Have Responded
• University of Maryland Employs Mass Notification System
• Virginia Tech Adopts New Emergency Alert System
• Cooper Notification Launches Nation’s Largest Regional Alerting System
• Multiple Modes of Mass Notification Make Sense

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Robin Hattersley Gray is executive editor of Campus Safety. She can be reached at robin.gray@bobit.com.

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