July 9, 2025

For Immediate Release

Redwood City – San Mateo County Emergency Management today hosted a comprehensive Alert and Warning seminar bringing together nearly 100 emergency management professionals from 37 organizations across eight Bay Area counties to address critical gaps in emergency communication systems that have contributed to preventable deaths in recent disasters.

The seminar, featuring internationally recognized crisis communication expert Dr. Jeannette Sutton, comes as this week's devastating Texas Hill Country floods — where floodwaters rose 22 feet in just two hours — serve as a stark reminder of how communication failures during emergencies can cost lives. With California facing increasing wildfire and flood risks, the timing underscores the urgent need for Bay Area communities to strengthen their emergency alert systems before disaster strikes.

"Alerts and warnings are literally life-saving infrastructure—as critical to public safety as our roads, bridges, and hospitals," said Dr. Shruti Dhapodkar, director of San Mateo County Emergency Management. "We didn't wait for a crisis to expose our gaps. We proactively sought expert evaluation of our communications to become a model for how alert systems should work—and we're fortunate to have operational partners across cities and neighboring counties committed to getting this right together. That collective coordination is rare in emergency management, yet it's a necessity for effective alerting in the moments that matter most."

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