According to the experts, basically the exact opposite of what we did this time.
, and after I spent an hour and a half at a playground birthday party, surrounded by toddlers whose parents had, apparently, not gotten a message to keep them home. That statement? Outdoor activities at schools would be canceled the next day., calling for an oversight hearing on how on earth “the most consequential action” the administration took on day one of an emergency was “a tweet.
them. I talked to experts in emergency management, crisis communications, and a government official in a state that’s pretty used to this particular kind of nightmare about what we should do next time.The New Yorkers who did get alerts Monday and Tuesday had taken proactive steps to sign up for them by downloading a little-known app called NotifyNYC or signing up for its text service — which, as of last spring, only about an eighth of New Yorkers had done.
David Abramson, a professor at NYU’s School of Global Public Health, did sign up with NotifyNYC, and he said he got his first email about air quality at 4:15 on Monday afternoon. Over the next 48 hours, he got dozens more notifications. Still, he says, it’s not enough — because most people haven’t, in fact, signed up. “I think they should have a push notification that goes to everybody for something like this,” he says.
Since not everyone has a cell phone or can look at their cell phone at work, the city should also send out clear messaging to employers on whether they should send people home or not, Rae Zimmerman, a professor at NYU whose research looks at the intersection of climate change and emergency management, says.
Abramson says the city could also be using the messaging systems it already has: billboards on highways, screens on subways, and the LinkNYC cell chargers glaring over sidewalks — which even as of Thursday morning shared no notice of air quality or suggestions to mask, instead displaying a drawing of a dog, the dollar amount of Mega Millions draws, and a schedule for far-off hockey games. The message those signs do share should align with the severity of the danger, Abramson says.
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