Hmm. There Seems to be a Glitch Somewhere...

Yesterday's 4.5 magnitude earthquake did more than just shake terra firma.

Apparently it exposed a glitch in the University of Washington's (UW's) Seismology Lab's warning system. Their automated paging system, which is triggered by seismic warnings, failed to wake up the geologists at 0525 hours when the earthquake occurred.

Fortunately, those of us at Washington Emergency Management (WA EMD) are linked to seismic warning devices. So our night shift folks transmitted the necessary warnings to all concerned.

However, this didn't let the UW folks off the hook. Seattle Times reporters wanted answers and they eventually got them:

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2008691489_earthquake31m0.html

My coworker, Dan & I spent a large part of our day talking to our Public Information Officers (PIOs). We discussed how the event unfolded and the actions taken by our night shift folks. Fortunately they did everything by the book. So much so, in fact that several people in our organization were miffed they didn't get a page. Normally during off-duty hours we page only our managers. As a result of this there was the usual clamor to be "added to the list."

This often happens after a significant event. Everyone wants to be "in the know."

When someone asks me to be added to the contact list I tell them: Be careful what you wish for...