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P3 Emergency Notices on Your Website

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Lesson 5 of 6 · Video

After the event

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1 minute 46 seconds. Captions are on. Narrated slides. The narration is a synthesized voice; a recorded voice replaces it later.

Say clearly that it is over, keep recovery information up while people need it, archive the record of what you posted and write down what to fix before next time.

Notes

Step 1 of 6

Start here

The emergency is not over on the website when the crisis ends. Residents who saw the warning need to see that it ended. Recovery brings its own questions: debris pickup, damaged roads, assistance programs. And the institution needs to learn from what happened before the next one.

Step 2 of 6

Say it is over

Post a closing update at the top of the emergency page, with the time and date:

Over: The boil water notice for north of Route 9 was lifted at 10 a.m. Thursday, October 8, 2026. Your water is safe to drink.

Add what residents should do now, if anything. For a boil water notice that might be flushing household pipes, following your water operator's instructions. For a storm it might be how to report damage.

Then:

  • Turn off the website alert bar, or change it to the closing message for a day.
  • Ask whoever runs the opt-in alert service and social media to send the same closing message.
  • Update any recorded phone message.

Step 3 of 6

Keep recovery information up

Recovery can last weeks. Keep a section on the emergency page, or a separate recovery page linked from it, with:

  • debris and bulk pickup schedules,
  • road and facility status,
  • how to report damage,
  • where to get help. After a federally declared disaster, DisasterAssistance.gov is where individuals apply for FEMA assistance. Link to it only when it applies to your event.

Remove each item when it no longer applies, and keep timestamps on every change.

Step 4 of 6

Archive what you posted

What your institution told the public, and when, is part of the record of the event. It may be requested by reporters, attorneys, insurers or residents, and it may be a public record under your state's law.

  1. Save a copy of the final emergency page with its full timeline of updates, as a PDF or a web archive file.
  2. Save copies of alert bar text, social posts and any alerts you sent or asked for, with times.
  3. File them with the event records, under the retention schedule your clerk follows.
  4. If you move the page to an archive area of the site, label it with the event and dates.

Step 5 of 6

Reset the emergency page

Once recovery information is no longer needed, put the emergency page back in its ready state: preparation information, alert sign-up links and contacts. Check that the address still works and nothing from the last event remains at the top.

Step 6 of 6

Hold an after-action review

FEMA's Homeland Security Exercise and Evaluation Program (HSEEP) uses an After-Action Report and Improvement Plan to record strengths, areas for improvement and corrective actions. You do not need a formal exercise to use the same idea. Within a few weeks, gather the people who posted, approved and answered the phones, and ask:

  • How long did the first notice take after we knew?
  • Did we keep every promised update time?
  • Did every channel say the same thing?
  • What did residents ask that the page did not answer?
  • Did the page load during the busiest hour? Ask your web provider for traffic and error numbers.
  • Did anyone get locked out of a login they needed?

Write the answers on one page, with a list of fixes, an owner for each and a date. Update your templates with what you learned. If your emergency manager writes a formal after-action report, give them your page.

Sources

Transcript

Synthesized narration; a recorded voice replaces it later.

  1. 0:00The emergency is not over on the website when the crisis ends.
  2. 0:03Residents who saw the warning need to see that it ended.
  3. 0:06And the institution needs to learn from what happened before the next one.
  4. 0:11Post a closing update at the top of the emergency page, with the time and date.
  5. 0:16Over: the boil water notice for north of Route 9 was lifted at 10 a.m. Thursday, October 8, 2026.
  6. 0:24Your water is safe to drink.
  7. 0:26Then turn off the alert bar, or change it to the closing message for a day.
  8. 0:30Ask whoever runs the alert service and social media to send the same message.
  9. 0:35Update any recorded phone message.
  10. 0:38Recovery can last weeks.
  11. 0:40Keep a section for debris pickup, road and facility status, how to report damage, and where to get help.
  12. 0:46Remove each item when it no longer applies, and keep timestamps on every change.
  13. 0:52What you told the public, and when, is part of the record.
  14. 0:56Save the final page with its timeline, and copies of alert text and posts, with times.
  15. 1:02File them under the retention schedule your clerk follows.
  16. 1:06Then reset the emergency page to its ready state: preparation information, alert sign-up links and contacts.
  17. 1:14Within a few weeks, hold an after-action review with the people who posted, approved and answered the phones.
  18. 1:20Six questions.
  19. 1:22Write the answers on one page, with a list of fixes, an owner for each, and a date.
  20. 1:28Update your templates with what you learned.
  21. 1:31Your task.
  22. 1:32Write a closing message template.
  23. 1:34Write down where event records go, and who keeps them.
  24. 1:38Copy the six review questions into a document.
  25. 1:41And if you had an emergency this past year, answer them for it now.

Task

Your task at your institution

Quiz

4 questions. Choose one answer for each, then check them. Each answer shows its reason.

1. The boil water notice is lifted. What goes at the top of the emergency page?
2. What do you do with the timeline of updates you posted?
3. What is an After-Action Report and Improvement Plan, in FEMA's exercise program?
4. When should the after-action review happen?
Show the answers
  1. B. A dated line saying it is over, and what residents should do now. People who saw the notice need to see it ended, and what to do next, such as flushing pipes.
  2. B. Archive it with its timestamps, under your records retention rules. It is the record of what the institution told the public, and when. It may also be a public record.
  3. B. A record of strengths, areas for improvement and corrective actions. HSEEP uses the AAR/IP to document what worked, what did not and what will be fixed.
  4. A. Within a few weeks, while memory is fresh. Details fade fast. Hold the review soon, even if it is a short one.