Prince George's County, Md. Water Emergency Alert for CIC's

If you have not already heard Prince George County Maryland is facing a water emergency.

PRINCE GEORGE'S COUNTY, Md. (WUSA9) -- We have learned mandatory water restrictions will begin at 9 p.m. Tuesday in Prince George's County areas affected by a failing water main.

Officials say a significant portion of Prince George's County will be left without water for several days. The issue is due to a 54 inch water main that is beginning to fail and must be replaced.

 Issues of concern will be updated here as this develops.

1. Fire, there are loads of issues on this alone and should be number one concern see below.
2. Cooling stations where are they and how can CIC establish them.
3. Cooking how to without water and eventual food distribution
4. Emergency Preparedness what are other issues especially with elder or disabled residents
5. Businesses what is the impact, does lack of water stop CIC’s contractors from working
6. What is the role and responsibility of Community Managers and Insurance companies. co
   
   

   
   

   1. Fire.  Hot water heaters - LIMIT USE OF THIS WATER AS DAMAGE TO THE HEATER AND POTENTIAL FIRE HAZARD EXIST. Gas or Charcoal Grills outside should not be used at all. Residents and Community Manager need to discuss a Fire Safety Plan and how to manage communications.

   
   

   
   

   This is a developing story please check back for updates as they are come in. 
   
   
   
   
   
   

There is no reason that your community should be on Social Media ~Right?

Since part of our chairman's Nelson Jacobsen, background involves a life time in emergency management and a new area called CrisisData he has been at the forefront of the social media citizen movement.

Specifically, This tread of using social media to communicate during a disaster is changing the whole world of emergency management.  Recently Nelson was part of a team of volunteers that assisted at the National Emergency Managers Association special workshop called SMEMCamp



This event allowed emergency managers "EM" to have access to social media practitioners who shared their experiences and knowledge in social media to help the EMs understand something that is completely overtaking their world.

More important to understand is that social media is 100 percent cloud based and this is really the forest behind the trees of twitter, facebook etc.  So yes what is popular is going to change and board's will have to learn to use new communications technology or skills and there is nothing else to do~  save to adapt.  

It should not be lost on boards and managers of Common Interest Communities that they need to adopt a social media strategy!  Not only because most of their members are already there; we know from recently disasters that citizens are going to turn to social media to communicate during them.

We have to wonder if the property management company in Georgetown, DC been on twitter would they would have seen the alerts that the DC government has posted. We saw them and changed our plans for the day.  They didn't and the outcome is a disaster

When your on social media it is interlinked and your emergency managers and national defense use these open system to look for what we call noise on the wire.

• For more information about CrisisData visit here. 
• To establish your community Twitter visit here

If you do one thing after reading this! We would advise that each CIC establish a twitter feed not only communicate with your membership -- it needs to be connected to you local government, utilities companies and emergency responders and you need to share this account with a couple of board members so what they can monitor and respond with it matters most in your community.

Here is a simple example of how to use Twitter during an emergency.

If your community is interested in Community Emergency Plans or how to establish a social media presence please contact. Hastatus, LLC follow @hastausllc or @intercommassoc