AWWA WSC61379

Emergency communication is a requirement of utilities monitored by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA), and of public health agencies monitored by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Robust public health emergency communication systems exist within each state, and are available for use by public health partners, such as public and private water systems. This paper presents the system developed by the State of California for public health alerting and emergency plan collaboration. It is a federally funded Information Sharing and Analysis Center, and much more. Called the California Health Alert Network (CAHAN), it is a secure, web-based hosted application that broadcasts disaster warnings to public health officials organized into three levels: alerts, advisories, and notifications. The paper discusses role-based alerting, alerting technology, secure portals for information sharing, Public Health Directory repository, distributed administration design, Public Health Partners, sustaining participation in emergency communication, and national health alert networks. Includes table.