The H1N1 Experience

During the initial H1N1 influenza outbreak in April 2009, the Santa Clara County Public Health Department web site went down due to large numbers of web hits caused by the high demand for information. The Public Information Officer (PIO) and Information Systems Department (ISD) staff re-directed viewers to an emergency dark site set up on Google Sites.

Chronology of Events: How the Emergency Dark Site
was Activated

Friday, April 24th

Reports of H1N1 illness in Mexico and the United States were circulating on the web and news. The Santa Clara County Public Health Department partially activated its Department Emergency Operations Center (DEOC) and monitored the situation throughout the weekend.

Monday, April 27th

The H1N1 situation continued to escalate and the DEOC was fully activated and staffed.

Tuesday, April 28th

H1N1 information from the CDC was posted and continually updated on the Santa Clara County Public Health Department’s web site

At 11:00 PM, a local school district announced closure of a high school due to the first confirmed H1N1 case in Santa Clara County – a high school student.

That same night, results of a special election were posted to the County’s overall public portal web site

Wednesday, April 29th

Early Wednesday morning, the County public portal and the link to the Public Health Department web site received 37,000 hits in two hours. Typical traffic is 2,000 hits in two hours.

At 11:00 am on Wednesday morning, the County web site went down from the overload of hits. Residents were no longer able to find information about the school closure, H1N1, or the special election results on the County web site

At the same time, news about the H1N1 flu was exploding across the Internet, on TV and through social media networks. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) was releasing new information hourly.

A web site that could handle rapidly changing information was needed.....and quickly.

Late in the afternoon on Wednesday, the Joint Information Center (JIC) was activated and additional risk communication staff began to assist with H1N1 communications efforts.

Thursday, April 30th

The Santa Clara County Chief Information Officer (CIO) and Information Systems Department (ISD) staff, working with a team of Stanford University students and their class professor, re-directed web traffic from the County public portal to an emergency site built on Google Sites.

This was the first time that Santa Clara county prepared and activated an emergency dark site to manage and provide critical emergency information.

|