2018

SERVICE TO THE CITIZEN AWARD WINNER

The Federal Web Council played a key role in coordinating response efforts in the aftermath of Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria.  USA.gov and GobiernoUSA.gov are designated as a major communication lane to coordinate and organize communications. The Federal Web Council brought together federal executive branch agencies to discuss and coordinate the dissemination of information making it easy for USAgov to get the information they needed swiftly.  The council met outside of their normal monthly meetings to ensure that agencies were on the same page. As each hurricane hit the sharing increased as well, linking back their agency websites to USA.gov. Agency points of contact worked with the USA.gov team to coordinate content for consistency.

The USA.gov team leveraged many different techniques to ensure that they could reach survivors pre and post-hurricanes despite dire conditions such as power outages and cell phone towers being destroyed.  Between August 17, 2017, and October 31, 2017 the reach included:

• Unique visitors to USA.gov pages (USA.gov and GobiernoUSA.gov) - 231,908

• Total touchpoints - 2.729,891 through social media, email and web in English and Spanish

• Almost 10,000 clicks on twitter; over 15,000 on Facebook in English and Spanish accounts

The Department of Homeland Security served as the primary coordinator within the Federal Web Council and coordinated information between FEMA, Ready.gov, DisasterAssistance.gov and the Coast Guard.  From August through October, there were over 2.8 million installs of the FEMA mobile app and 132,000 searches for shelter locations via text message.

The Department of Health and Human Services served as the primary source for coordinating information via agencies and kept USA.gov updated to ensure they had the most current information.  HHS responded to hurricane victims in Texas, Louisiana, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. HHS sent National Disaster Medical System staff, Disaster Medical Assistance Teams and Response Coordination Teams to the affected areas to assist them in meeting the health needs of communities.  HHS’ social media response focused on emergency response and sharing information about our response on the ground.

HHS’ emergency response included messaging from the HHS Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response, CDC, FDA, CMS, SAMHSA that helped people get the latest information of how to protect themselves, their families and their health.  This included critical health information to help those affected get access to their medication through:

• The Emergency Prescription Assistance Program

• Information regarding insulin storage and life-saving dialysis services

• Crisis counseling through the Disaster Distress Helpline

The Federal Web Council played a critical coordination role across agencies to ensure that the public could find information across federal agencies.