September 11, 2009 was the eighth year anniversary that recalled the horrors of 9/11/01. But, unlike the past seven 9/11s, this one included a national ‘preparedness drill season’ that mobilized more than 400,000 people in more than 27 states – with 127 practice drills occurring from coast-to-coast.

Just why this happened – and the spontaneity of the process – is a remarkable story.

A Non-Profit Seeks to Involve John Q Public in His Own Safety Back in January, 2009, the Safe America Foundation – a 501(c)-3 non-profit – began to mull over what it could do that might make this 9/11 more ‘helpful’ to preventing future disasters from being as devastating. Foundation President & CEO Len Pagano – who had completed a program involving earthquake preparedness – noted that while governments were getting better at planning what they would do, a missing link was involving the public.

“It seemed like every year, the public was getting further and further passive – which ultimately means that 300 million people were still depending on a tiny percentage of the population to prop them up – when a major disaster occurs. This just seemed like we were still heading down a path that would bring more Katrinas our way, not fewer,’ Pagano observed.

Pagano’s Atlanta-based non-profit offered up theea of conducting a national ‘drill’ on 9/11 during a late January meeting in Chicago – hosted by outgoing FEMA V Regional Administrator Edward Buikema. “It was amazing how quickly people reacted – saying this was long overdue – and could be a major factor in changing how preparedness was viewed,’ he noted. “Instead of holding drills with first responders, why not make the average American the focus of practice drills – including drills at homes, in neighborhoods and online?” – theea just seemed to make sense to the audience of 150 people gathered for a regional preparedness summit.

Concept Tracked Fugate’s Approach While Pagano had yet to meet incoming FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate, it seemed to track Fugates’   philosophy of having the ‘average American individual needs to be more engaged in emergency readiness.’ Because Safe America believes not all readiness is dependent on government action, the non-profit created ‘9/11 Drill Down for Safety,’ a program that focused on building a national coalition involving corporate partners, community leaders and government agencies to be sure every American can practice being prepared in the event of a natural or man-made disaster.

“When I first heard about the concept, I recognized quickly the value of 9/11 Drill Down for Safety because it extended preparedness beyond first responders and utilize existing resources in creating local practice drills—for individual families and businesses—to mitigate damage and loss of life and promote community economic resiliency,” said former FEMA Deputy Director Dennis Schrader, an early program supporter. “What thrilled me was how many companies and non-profits – like the International Association of Emergency Managers (IAEM), the National Emergency Managers Association (NEMA), the U.S. Chamber’s “Business Civic Leadership Center,’ the American Logistics Aid Network (ALAN), the National Association of EMTs (NAEMT) and National Association of State EMS Officers (NASEMSO) jumped on Board – with no hesitation.”

They were not the only ones. Major firms including Motorola, UPS, Roche/Genentech and CNA Insurance provided major funding as well as logistical support. Pagano noted that thanks to their support and additional involvement from over 20 other firms, more than 400,000 people participated in the program – double the original expectation. More than 100 million media impressions were generated by late September – more than 10 times the number first forecasted!

Regional Structure, National Drill Pagano noted that the program was created around the 10 regional hubs that FEMA uses – with Safe America’s goal of building a unified national drill. While Year 1 allowed a great deal of individuality in how companies responded, Pagano noted that the overall goal over the next three years is to conduct a single drill in all 50 states at the same time – allowing the country’s infrastructure to be both tested and tweaked – so when an emergency happens, both individuals and public safety groups are ‘ready.’

First Year Hubs In ‘Year One,’ of its five-year plan, Safe America built its program from a Chicago base… with Boston, Philadelphia, Atlanta, San Diego, Salt Lake City, Dallas, Baltimore and Washington, DC as key ‘hubs.’ Expansion into Houston – thanks to St. Joseph’s Medical Center in Houston and its CEO,Phil Robinson – opened in late summer… with a goal of working with community leader Charles White and involving urban populations (Hispanic, African American and Asian-American) in Year Two (2010).

“Our goal is to showcase the benefits of drilling and encourage families as well as businesses to make an ‘annual commitment’ to drill,” said Motorola Foundation Executive Director Eileen Sweeney. “What is pleasing about this program is that it’s turned attention to the average person – making him aware that he should be his own first responder.”

Another feature of Year 1 was an online ‘pledge to drill’ campaign, with social media including Facebook and Twitter promoting the goal with a 30-day blitz beginning in mid-August.

9/11 Drill Down for Safety: Program Elements The program has 4 key elements that were executed starting in mid-August through mid-October. They were:

A Public Information Campaign that was a partnership of USA Today along with broadcast stations including NBC’s WMAQ-TV in Chicago as well as various Cox Broadcasting and Citadel Radio stations in the South and West. Collectively, more than 100 articles or broadcast stories were carried, promoting the program’s goal of national preparedness through regular or annual readiness drills.

• A National ‘Pledge to Drill’ Campaign that occurred during August stimulated broad grassroots participation.
• Test Drills organized in 10 key sites nationally including: Atlanta (UPS Headquarters); Boca Raton, Florida (Office Depot Headquarters); Chicago (CNA Insurance and Motorola); Lansing (Michigan State University); Phoenix (with the Medical Reserve Corps); Philadelphia (Dilworth Paxson and Patco Transit System); Richmond (UPS Regional location); San Diego (16 area high schools); San Francisco (Federal Building); and Salt Lake City (suburban community of Lindon, Utah).
• Online Training -  a total of six webinars and online training events were held for small and medium size businesses. Topics included:
  • Drills: Why and How to Plan for an Emergency
  • Creating Business and Community Drills
  • Personal Emergency Planning and Preparation
  • Protecting Employees: Legal Responsibilities
  • Critical Messages: How to Communicate
  • Creating Business Continuity Planning: Process and Program
  • Protecting Special Need Populations

In 2010, Safe America will continue to build upon its first year, expanding the educational component to include more training with partners such as the US Medical Reserve Corps (in the Surgeon General’s Office) along with the University of Chicago, Loyola University, IAEM and corporate partners such as Motorola and UPS.

“This year, thanks to UPS, we were able to post information online that would save the average small business thousands of dollars – not to mention hundreds of manhours – in planning costs,” said Pagano. “We’re proud of what we could offer small and mid-sized businesses via this partnership with UPS – and look toward expanding this in 2010 were feasible.”

Next Step: Research Another component will be the introduction of benchmark research that can be updated each year to see what factors are causing Americans to be reluctant to ‘be prepared’ in advance of cyclical natural disasters along with other forms of biological (pandemic flu, for instance) or infrastructure breakdowns (such as a prolonged power outage). Foundation Chairman Gary Grube (Caerus Institute in Chicago) said that Safe America is hoping to create a research consortium – involving people like Dr. Dennis Mileti and Michele Woods from the University of Southern California.

2010 Planning Process Begun In late October, meetings were held at McDonald’s Corporate HQ in Oak Brook, Illinois with a national task force, looking at how to expand the program. On tap: meetings in Washington with major telecom carriers as well as broadband networks. The goal: to develop a truly national drill in 2010 that helps wireless companies be ready for emergencies – and helps major public safety organizations with a standard approach.

“One innovation we’re looking at is how to utilize texting as the common language for the average person when voice and digital communication is down,” Pagano said. “We think this could be a major advancement – keeping business running… as they develop texting communication protocols.”

Pagano added that thanks to Motorola, a research project known as ‘Safety Tree™’ is being studied that will allow smartphone users in the future to share a simple text message with a variety of pre-entered phone subscribers. This could be another means of helping the average person be in touch with both relatives and their employer – keeping people informed of where they are when emergencies strike.

“When you look beyond public safety, you quickly realize we have lots to do to make sure we can handle emergencies,” Pagano said. ‘Thanks to 9/11 Drill Down for Safety, we have a means of helping FEMA, DHS and other state/regional public safety organizations channel the average person’s interest into action. If you were going to say that this is a positive outcome from 9/11, I would concur. And, I’d note – it’s about time.”

Technology Safety for Teens A key component of the 2009 drill has been its emphasis on teaching texting as an alternative way to stay in touch. This fall, Safe America launched a new Website aimed at helping children and young adults use new technology more safely. Safeamericakids.org provides educational advice to teens and parents about cell phone safety, including advice about protecting cell phone numbers and practicing good “Netiquette” when sending text messages.

Pagano acknowledges that the emphasis on new technology and social media is not accidental.

“New communication methods like text messaging and social media Websites are an integral part of every safety program we develop,” said Pagano. “Our mission is to help people be prepared for any emergency. Communicating through new technology is critical to that mission.”

To that end, Pagano himself avidly “tweets” every day, and he has spearheaded development of Safe America’s Facebook page, YouTube Channel and blog. He has hired staff with social media skills, and understands the value of “Internet buzz” in promoting the organization’s programs. “Our ‘Drill Down for Safety’ campaign was successful only because the online community supported us, and helped us build a groundswell through blogs and media attention,” Pagano said.

4357 Spells Help:  Safe America Provides Tips for Emergency Communications If disaster strikes and cell phone towers are jammed, you can still use your handheld device to communicate. By sending a text message -- or using your cell phone to get on the Internet and access Twitter or Facebook -- you can communicate with family and friends even if your cell phone isn’t working for a voice phone call. Text messaging is particularly important, since it works on an analog system and may still be up and running even if wireless access is down.

The Safe America Foundation recommends that every family set up a texting plan in case of emergency:

• First, check with your service provider to verify your text messaging plan. Some text messaging plans only allow for a small number of messages per month, and may charge large fees for additional messages.
• Meet with your family members to come up with messages to send in case of an emergency. Make up your own abbreviations for specific events or disasters.
• Arrange to pre-load emergency messages in your phone’s template folder for immediate access. This will help reduce time texting an entire message.
• Set up “distribution lists” on your phone. Add your emergency contacts, including family and friends, so that you can alert everyone at once when you send out messages.
• Practice! Do a “test drill” to make sure everyone in the family knows what to do and understands how the process will work if an actual emergency occurs.

About Safe America Foundation The Safe America Foundation is a 501(c)(3) non-profit licensed by the state of Georgia. Chartered in 1994, with headquarters in Marietta, Georgia, the foundation partners with corporate, governmental, public and private sector organizations, and other nonprofits to improve the safety awareness and preparedness of Americans nationwide.  Our mission is to distribute information, develop and facilitate programming, and support businesses and products with a focus on emerging health and safety issues at home, work and play and to partner with civic organizations, government and corporations combining collective knowledge and skills to address emerging health and safety issues to promote a Safer America.

To become involved in Drill Down or ‘Pledge to Drill,’ please contact: Len Pagano, President & CEO Safe America Foundation Phone: 770-973-7233 Email: len.pagano@safeamerica.org