The first mile of warnings: Placing people first

This guidance argues that people using warnings should be involved in the warning design and implementation from the beginning to build trust, credibility, and effectiveness. Connecting local and external knowledge and experiences achieve the first mile. Providing technology to disseminate information is not the first warning step.

The first mile of warnings means combining formal and informal communication and information exchange modes and methods, decision-making, and implementation. Examples are word-of-mouth distributing accurate information alongside messages from authorities that were developed with recipients and disseminated across all the technologies people own. Combining such communication approaches requires flexibility, transparency, and timelines with feedback from and to everyone involved for continual adjustment.