New York City Bomb

Unfortunately, on March 6th, an explosive device was set off in Times Square. This was an incident in which it would have been helpful to use handheld devices [that I mentioned in my posting about Vantage Point] between the local police department, the fire station, nearby hospitals, and the Joint Terrorism Task Force (the large Police Department and F.B.I. unit that investigates terrorism) to keep all departments in communication and current with the situation. Additionally, this was a good opportunity for them to use Notify NYC for a smaller, but still needed, situation. However, according to the Notify NYC website, no messages were issued on March 6. The following messages are the most recent notifications that the system sent:

10:01 am - TUE, March 11, 2008
Notify NYC - Notification--MN
Notification 2 on 03/11/08 at 10:00.
Due to a watermain break, the following street closures are in effect: Church Street and 6 Ave are both closed from Franklin Street to Walker Street.

1:17 am - TUE, Feb. 26, 2008
Notify NYC - Notification - Manhattan
Notification 2 issued 02/26/08, 0117 hrs.
The FDNY has placed the fire under control, and emergency activity at 47 West St.(at Rector St.) has concluded.

3:29 pm - WED, Feb. 20, 2008
Notify NYC Test
This is a monthly test of Notify NYC, the City of New York's emergency public messaging program. During an emergency, this system may be used to deliver important information. Thank you for your participation.

4:53 pm - SUN, Jan. 13, 2008
Notify NYC - Notification
National Weather Service has issued a heavy snow warning from 9 pm till noon Monday. 5 - 7 inches of snowfall possible.

While these are all very important messages, I think a message should have been sent out about the bomb. Although fortunately in this case it was an isolated instance, it very well could resulted in other implications. According to the NY Times article, "Although the damage today was relatively minor, the prominent location of the blast at a time of heightened concerns about terrorism attracted national attention". It seems to me that this would just as important, if not more important, to inform Notify NYC participants about.

Additionally, the bomb caused over a dozen subways to be temporarily shut down. Shouldn't the Notify NYC participants have been notified of this? What's the point of having advanced technology if we don't utilize its capabilities?

Like I said in an earlier posting about the steam pipe explosion, it is normal for people in NYC to panic and assume the worst. After all, having lived through 9/11 why wouldn't you? One woman in the NYT article solidifies my point: "I thought it was thunder at first, just one single huge bang. So I got up to look out the window, saw nothing, then spent the rest of the night worrying what it was. I thought it couldn’t be a terrorist attack in the middle of the night, right? But I was concerned.” A message from Notify NYC could have better informed NYC residents and quickly alleviated any concerns about terrorism as soon as updated information was available.