Citation

Lindell MK, Perry RW. Int. J. Mass Emerg. Disasters 1987; 5(2): 137-153.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1987, International Sociological Association, International Research Committee on Disasters)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The principal alternative mechanisms are described that might be considered by local governments for achieving prompt notification of the public in a natural or technological emergency. These alternatives include face-to-face warnings, mobile loudspeakers, sirens, commercial radio and television, NOAA Weather Radio, newspapers, and telephones. Each of the alternatives is evaluated on the basis of the number of people who can effectively be warned, specificity of the message that can be transmitted, degree of message distortion, coverage of the population at risk, dissemination time, and cost. Data collected following the eruption of Mount St. Helens are presented that illustrate how rapidly informal warning networks act to disseminate threat information in an emergency.