Public Safety Committee discusses reaching residents

After last month’s conference call with Joplin, Mo., officials who dealt with a catastrophic tornado in 2011, the Bella Vista Public Safety Committee is trying to find new ways to educate the public on emergency awareness.

Jack Fellenzer, the committee’s chairman, attended a Recovery Summit in Joplin on May 19. Speakers from across the country recapped the disaster in Joplin, which killed 158 people and caused $2.8 billion in damage as an EF-5 tornado essentially flattened the city.

Fellenzer said that the biggest thing he learned from the experience is that there is no one solution that will help prepare a community for the worst. He encouraged the community to visit joplinproud.com, which features video footage of speakers at the summit.

“There was a lot of talk about what worked and what didn’t work, and that’s what I tried to focus in on,” he said. “I wish I could come back with a book and and say ‘here’s all the answer,’ but I couldn’t.”

Officials stressed two main points, Fellenzer said.

“The first is ‘never say never,’” he said. “I’ve heard these stories ever since I moved here. ‘We’ll never get a tornado because of the mountains.’ Don’t ever say that. The other was citizen awareness…. You get into a panic mode when a disaster happens and you don’t know what to do. And you can’t ask anyone because all of the communication systems are down.”

Fellenzer said one idea he received from the summit is employee facilitation training.

“The mayor and the alderman are going to get asked ‘what do you do’ if an emergency happens,” Fellenzer said. “It’s important that they know what to do. If people can’t get to 911 dispatch or the fire department, they’re going to be calling City Hall….. I’ll be talking to the mayor to see if it’s possible to hire someone to give that training.”

The mantra from the summit was “Do as much as you can in advance.” The Public Safety Committee and the city continue to come up with new ways to reach the largest possible number of people in the community.

“Mayor Christie has indicated from day one that citizen awareness should be our function,” Fellenzer said. “How do we best inform the citizens what to do in a disaster? That’s what we need to think about.”

“One of the things we’ve found when trying to disseminate information is that any medium you use, you reach maybe 20 percent of your intended audience,” said Police Chief Ken Farmer. “We’ve tried to put stuff in the POA water bill. Not many people read that. Same thing with the newspaper. We have a really good relationship with the weekly newspaper, but their circulation is dwindling like all print media. So we have to use all of the different means of communication that we can.”

As more young people move into the city, appealing to churches and church groups becomes less effective because youth are less involved in church.

“Word of mouth is probably the best bet,” said Communications Director Cassi Lapp.

On social media, the city has found that weekly seasonal posts go over well with a large number of people.

“Not everyone in Bella Vista has social media, so it’s important to reach people in multiple ways,” Lapp said. “People aren’t going to look for emergency information until they need that information. If people think their house might burn down, they’re going to read about it. If they don’t, they’re not.”

Lapp said that the city targets crucial information based on events in the city. If a flash flood causes damage in the city, the city will send out information on flooding precautions while the interest is high.

“You have to tie it to something they care about,” she said.