What the emergency page is for

When something goes wrong in a community, such as a storm, a water main break, a chemical spill or a long power outage, residents go looking for one thing: what is happening and what should I do. Some will get a phone alert. Many will search, or type your web address, or tap a link a neighbor shared.

The emergency page is where all of them should land. This course is about building that page, writing for it under pressure and practicing until it works without thinking.

One page, one address, decided in advance

Pick a short address and never change it:

• yourtown.gov/emergency
• yourcounty.gov/alerts

Print it on utility bills, the back of the town newsletter, magnets and the website footer. Say it on local radio. When an emergency comes, the address is already in people's heads and on their refrigerators.

Every other channel points to this page: phone alerts, social media posts, the alert bar on your website, press releases and the recorded phone message. They carry the headline. The page carries the detail.

Why the page must be fast

During an emergency, many people open the same page at once, often on weak mobile connections or with power out at home. A page full of photos, videos, maps that load slowly and tracking scripts may not load at all.

The Federal Communications Commission's 2016 Wireless Emergency Alert rules required carriers to support embedded web addresses and phone numbers in alerts. If your county puts your emergency page in an alert sent to every phone in an area, that page gets a crowd in seconds.

Keep the page light:

• Text first. A headline, a timestamp and short sections.
• At most one small image, such as a simple map of a closure area, with a text description.
• No video embedded at the top. Link to it instead.
• No pop-ups, sign-up overlays or chat windows.

Ask your web provider two questions: can the page be served from a cache or content delivery network, and has it ever been tested under heavy load? Write down the answers.

What the page holds

During an emergency, in this order:

1. Status and time: "Updated 2:15 p.m. Tuesday, October 6, 2026."
2. What is happening, in one or two sentences.
3. What to do now, as instructions.
4. Where: affected areas, closures, shelters, water distribution points.
5. When we will update next.
6. How to get alerts, with the sign-up link for your local alert service.
7. Other languages, if you provide them.
8. Who to call, including the non-emergency line and 911 for emergencies.

Between emergencies, the page stays live with preparation information: how to sign up for alerts, what each alert type means and links to your county's emergency management office.

The page follows your emergency plan

The website does not decide what to say. In an emergency, your institution's plan names who speaks for it, usually a public information officer working with the emergency manager. FEMA's National Incident Management System calls the coordination of public information across agencies a Joint Information System.

Your role is to publish the approved message fast and accurately, and to tell the information lead what residents are asking, through calls, emails and comments. Find out now who that person is and how they will reach you.

Accessibility applies in an emergency

The Department of Justice's Title II rule requires state and local government web content to meet WCAG 2.1, Level AA. The rule has no exception for emergency information. A scanned press release or a map with no text is the version some residents cannot use when they most need it.