Page - 37 - in Book of Full Papers - Symposium Hydro Engineering

this emergency had occurred just a few months later, these additional inundation maps would have been available, and the evacuation notice could have been targeted to more specific areas. 4.2. MASS NOTIFICATION SYSTEM The notification system used by DWR emergency managers, known as Blackboard, and the large notification lists contained therein led to some unforeseen issues and confusion during the incident. 4.2.1. Blackboard Blackboard is an automated mass notification system that has many capabilities, but in this case, was set up by DWR to sends messages to a roster of emergency management and response agencies via email and telephone. For telephone messages, it has the capacity to call three phone numbers at a time. It works sequentially through the notification list until all contacts have answered the phone, been left a voicemail, or did not answer after several attempts. The fact that the system can only call three numbers at a time resulted in a significant delay in disseminating the evacuation notice to those relying on telephone messaging. The initial evacuation message that was sent via Blackboard at 4:10 pm did not reach all of the ~160 contacts on the notification list until 4:44 pm. The follow up message, which indicated that the Emergency Spillway could fail within the next 60 minutes and provided guidance on evacuation routes, was sent at 4:34 pm and was not completely disseminated until 5:10 pm. Because of this delay, many of the emergency management and law enforcement agencies on the notification list found out about the emergency and evacuation via social media prior to learning about it from the official Blackboard notification. DWR had added various emergency managers to the Blackboard call down list over the years, without understanding the impact that all those additional numbers would have on the efficiency of the system. In that regard, it is important that dam operators or anyone relying on these automated systems to provide important emergency messages understand their limitations and test them regularly. 4.2.2. Message Specificity and Warning Templates Another lesson that was reinforced through the Oroville emergency was the need for emergency messages, especially those ordering protective actions such as evacuations, to be as specific as possible. The initial message that was sent out started with “This is an evacuation order. Immediate evacuation from the low 37