Please take a moment to take our very short poll on how you prefer to receive emergency alerts notifications. Click on the link below to voice your opinion!
We will publish the results to the site in a week or two!
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/C3RGPS9
By GILLIAN FLACCUS (AP) – 14 hours ago
HONOLULU — The warning was ominous, its predictions dire: Oceanographers issued a bulletin telling Hawaii and other Pacific islands that a killer wave was heading their way with terrifying force and that “urgent action should be taken to protect lives and property.”
But the devastating tidal surge predicted after Chile’s magnitude 8.8-earthquake for areas far from the epicenter never materialized. And by Sunday, authorities had lifted the warning after waves half the predicted size tickled the shores of Hawaii and tourists once again jammed beaches and restaurants.
Scientists acknowledged they overstated the threat but many defended their actions, saying they took the proper steps and learned the lessons of the 2004 Indonesian tsunami that killed thousands of people who didn’t get enough warning.
“It’s a key point to remember that we cannot under-warn. Failure to warn is not an option for us,” said Dai Lin Wang, an oceanographer at the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii. “We cannot have a situation that we thought was no problem and then it’s devastating. That just cannot happen.”
Hundreds of thousands of people fled shorelines for higher ground Saturday in a panic that circled the Pacific Rim after scientists warned 53 nations and territories that a tsunami had been generated by the massive Chilean quake.
It was the largest-scale evacuation in Hawaii in years, if not decades. Emergency sirens blared throughout the day, the Navy moved ships out of Pearl Harbor, and residents hoarded gasoline, food and water in anticipation of a major disaster. Some supermarkets even placed limits on items like Spam because of the panic buying.
At least five people were killed by the tsunami on Robinson Crusoe Island off Chile’s coast and huge waves devastated the port city of Talcahuano, near hard-hit Concepcion on Chile’s mainland.
But the threat of monster waves that left Hawaii’s sun-drenched beaches empty for hours never appeared — a stark contrast to the tidal surge that killed 230,000 people around the Indian Ocean in 2004 and flattened entire communities.
More at: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jBrcBuf8vcRnbwe8MlMqRV1EnkOwD9E5LFTG1
This may be a little dated, but it looks like Maldives is implementing cell broadcast technology, in addition the article also mentions about an alert and warning system in Sri Lanka that is in place for a couple of years. The study mentioned in the article – ‘Mobile Cell Broadcasting for Commercial Use and Public Warning in the Maldives’ – is available online here.
Maldives to get early warning alerts via SMS
02 September 2009Facing increased threats triggered by climate change, Maldives will soon receive text based early warning alerts for disasters. Cell broadcasting, a technology will enable delivery of information to multiple users simultaneously in a specified area.
Texting short messages through mobile phones could help in early warning of natural disasters in the Maldives, says a new report.
The technology, called cell broadcasting, helps to deliver messages simultaneously to multiple users in a specified area.
In the case of the Maldives, if an early warning is introduced, it must be able to reach all of the outlying islands including tourists on resorts.
With mobile phones quite ubiquitous, it may be an ideal time to introduce an emerging technology — cell broadcasting — for public early warning,” says the report, ‘Mobile Cell Broadcasting for Commercial Use and Public Warning in the Maldives’, which was published last month (15 July).
More at: http://southasia.oneworld.net/ictsfordevelopment/maldives-to-get-early-warning-alerts-via-sms
Are emergency management teams adequately prepared to handle special-needs scenarios?
By Elizabeth A. Davis and Kelly Rouba
In an article that appeared in New Mobility magazine (“Are We Ready for an Emergency?” August 2009), Chip Wilson, Florida’s statewide disability coordinator for emergency management, was quoted as saying that “for far too long, people with disabilities have been an afterthought by many involved in emergency management.”
In support of that statement, disability advocate and Mercer County (N.J.) CERT member Norman Smith, who has cerebral palsy, added that for many years, “On the emergency management side, there was the assumption that someone else was ‘responsible’ for us—an agency, an institution, a parent, or the health care system.”
Recognizing that changes needed to be made, the National Council on Disability commissioned our organization to conduct extensive empirical research on emergency management issues pertaining to people with disabilities. The resulting report of over 500 pages examines all phases of emergency management.
This report is the result of culling through thousands upon thousands of pages of materials found inscholarly journals, news reports, firsthand accounts, testimony, after action reports, and the like from across a variety of disciplines. We looked to works in emergency management, protective services, sociology, social anthropology, medicine (disaster, geriatrics, pediatric), transportation, housing and much more.
The goal was to not just reiterate known or presumed gaps based in part on the lack of reporting on the issues, but to find replicable solutions and promising practices and to offer an organized roadmap for change.
Titled “Effective Emergency Management: Making Improvements for Communities and People with Disabilities,” the report calls for significant changes in the field and highlights a number of best practices whose adoption might better address the needs of people with disabilities.
FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said the commission’s national broadband plan will call on Congress to allocate $16 billion to $18 billion over 10 years to help build an interoperable, pubic-safety broadband network–a bold effort to move forward on an issue that has stymied the FCC for years. He also said the plan would call for a re-auction of the D Block of the 700 MHz spectrum band, and said public-safety agencies should have access to all of the 700 MHz band, not just the D Block.
A day after he outlined the commission’s proposals for mobile broadband, Genachowski turned his attention to public safety–an issue that has long bedeviled policy makers working to smooth communications among the nation’s police, fire fighters and associated emergency workers.
“The private sector simply is not going to build a nationwide, state-of-the-art, interoperable broadband network for public safety on its own dime,” he said in a speech at the FCC. “Local municipalities and states can certainly contribute some amount to sustaining any network that is built. But the bottom line is that if we want to deliver on what our first responders need to protect our communities and loved ones, public money will need to be put toward tackling this national priority.”
Genachowski said the plan envisions public safety having access to the entire 700 MHz band through roaming and priority access arrangements. He said public-safety agencies could have access to as much as 80 MHz of spectrum under those kinds of deals.
He said the FCC does not want to limit the public-safety community’s options, noting public safety would be able to work with any commercial operator or systems integrator under the plan.
Read more: http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/fcc-pushing-d-block-re-auction/2010-02-25?utm_medium=nl&utm_source=internal#ixzz0ga41xad7
t’s easy to get complacent and drift from day to day without paying much attention to potential threats until an incident out of the blue slaps us across the face and demands we sit up and pay attention.
For many, the actions of Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab, the man U.S. authorities say attempted to detonate an explosive device in his underwear, aboard Delta Airlines Flight 253 are such a wakeup call. The failed Christmas Day bombing came at a time when most people were focused on gathering for cherished family time and taking part in long-held holiday traditions. But with one news flash, those priorities, at least for a moment, were redirected into thoughts of safety and security.
Personally, beyond the typical reaction of most Americans to word of the failed effort, I could not help but think of the important role digital signage can play in delivering emergency alert messages.
Certainly, I’m not so wrapped up in digital signage that I think there’s a place for 42in LCD panels and a digital signage network aboard an airliner. That’s just silly. But what does come to mind is how businesses, educational institutions, stadiums and arenas, casinos, government agencies, the military and many others have taken steps to ensure emergency messaging via their digital signage networks as a component of their overall strategy for responding to a threat.
More at: http://www.content4reprint.com/business/digital-signage-emergency-alert-messages-can-save-lives.htm
by Randy J. Stine, 02.17.2010
ANCHORAGE, Alaska A test of the Emergency Alert System that included the first planned activation of the Emergency Action Notification event code was likely just the first of several exercises the Federal Emergency Management Agency will take, seeking data to help plug coverage gaps in the planned next-gen EAS.
The EAN is the activation code that would allow the president of the United States to address the nation directly via broadcast radio stations, TV stations and cable outlets during a national emergency.
The Alaskan test in January was observed by a large contingent of FEMA and Federal Communications Commission personnel and was deemed a success by most involved despite a few glitches. The Alaska Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, the Alaska Broadcasters Association, the Federal Communications Commission and FEMA officials coordinated the event.
The Alaska Broadcasters Association provided this image for TV and cable systems to use during the test.
The overall success of the exercise will be measured in part by a statewide followup survey of radio and TV broadcasters by the Alaska Broadcasters Association.
The FCC has since proposed an annual nationwide test of the national alert capability of EAS in a subsequent rulemaking proposal and is asking for comments to EB Docket 04-296 (Radio World, Feb. 1).
For more click here: http://www.radioworld.com/article/94818
By Stephanie Taylor Staff Writer
TUSCALOOSA | The emergency notification system at the University of Alabama has been activated only for weather warnings, but officials are confident it can be triggered quickly if a bigger tragedy unfolds.
“The U-Alert was triggered late because the people involved in activating that system were involved in responding to the shooting,” UAH Police Chief Charles Gailes said at a news conference. “We’re going to stop, we’re going to sit down, we’re going to review what happened. All of these actions are going to be learning points, and we’re going to be better for this.”
rreyes@tampatrib.com
Published: February 5, 2010
The Tampa Bay area, the message read, was under an earthquake warning.
“It said to be prepared,” said Brooks, 58. “It put me in a panic attack.”
The tickertape scrawl about the tremors turned out to be a test that only meteorologists should have seen.
“We test it all the time,” said Dan Noah of the National Weather Service in Ruskin, “but it usually isn’t broadcast to the rest of the world. This one made it out of the building.”
Almost immediately, all the phone lines at the weather service and Hillsborough County Emergency Management lit up with concerned callers, officials said.
“We got a few” calls, emergency management spokeswoman Holley Wade said with a laugh.
Noah said that on the radio, the warning was spoken by an automated voice that repeated, “Test, earthquake warning, test.” The alert was broadcast at 1:07 p.m.
Computer engineers are still trying to figure out how the glitch happened.
“Our No. 1 mission is to warn of hazardous weather to protect life and property,” Noah said. “We have to make sure the system works.”
Article at: http://www2.tbo.com/content/2010/feb/05/na-earthquake-warning-test-shakes-viewers/
Yesterday, FEMA illustrated its G eo-Targeted Alerting System (GTAS) project, a prototype application of plume modeling and high resolution weather models that may eventually be used for alerting the public.
The application is essentially a map-based notification interface, however, it is connected to some very useful data. First, it receives high-resolution weather data and modeling feeds from the National Weather Service. These feeds allow emergency managers to visualize areas in the path of dangerous weather (currently or forecasted) and to select these areas for the issuance of highly targeted public emergency notifications. Further, the app provides built-in collaboration tools so emergency managers can can work with outside experts to clarify the information being presented.
More at: http://www.emergencymgmt.com/emergency-blogs/alerts/FEMA-Shows-Off-its.html
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