Emergency Alerts & Notifications

We live in a day and age where all we need is our phone to be connected to the world around us. We can keep up-to-date with the weather, our favorite sports team and friend’s social life right at the tip of our fingers. Another benefit of the technological age is being notified of disasters and emergencies before they happen. This way, we can be informed and take appropriate measures to keep ourselves and our loved ones safe from natural disasters such as a wildfires, floods, severe storms and other emergencies. Technology is changing how we live our lives and making giant leaps in natural disaster safety and emergencies.

Wireless Emergency Alerts

The CTIA and the wireless industry, along with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), developed the Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) to send concise, text-like messages to users? WEA-capable mobile devices. This ensures Americans are alerted to the dangerous situations as soon as possible. Every wireless user is already enrolled to receive three different kind of alerts.

• Presidential Alerts ? Alerts issued by the President or a designee.
• Imminent Threat Alerts ? Alerts that include severe man-made or natural disasters, such as hurricanes, earthquakes, tornadoes, etc., where an imminent threat to life or property exists; and
• Amber Alerts ? Alerts that meet the U.S. Department of Justice’s criteria to help law enforcement search for and locate an abducted child.

Reverse 911

Reverse 911 informs you of an emergency or natural disaster that will occur in your neighborhood at least 20 minutes before local media gets a hold of it. It is one of the most effective resources out there and it can target all residents in a community down to a single address. To register, all you need is a zip cope where you live to connect all your phones to the service.

AtHoc Alerts

AtHoc is a very inventive product that provides a comprehensive crisis communication and mass notification solution that unifies all channels and devices. It empowers organizations, people, and communities to communicate and collaborate during critical events. The technology even links other incoming sources, such as FEMA alerts.

Amber Alerts and Uber

Uber is piloting a program to send Amber Alerts to all it’s drivers. The program is first being tested in Colorado. The alerts are sent to the drivers via the Uber app. This way, as the drivers travel around they can be on the lookout for the missing children.

Digital Billboard Alerts

An inventive idea by many states and local governments is to use digital billboards to alert drivers of an emergency. Emergency warnings include everything from flash floods, hurricanes, natural gas shortages updates about evacuations and road detours. Six states have entered into a partnership with the billboards,? Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Massachusetts, Oklahoma and Texas.

Car Dashboard Alerts

In April of this year, the National Association of Broadcaster’s convention in Vegas showed off a cool, new technology. Jump2Go, introduced a new product called e911FM. The system makes it possible to send alerts to car radios in the same way song titles are displayed on car dashboards.

Mobile DTV Alerts

Another channel for dispersing alerts is on the table. This new service would allow broadcasters to send alerts to handheld devices via TV signals rather than cell networks. This new system is being developed by AWARN in hopes of enhancing the nation’s emergency preparedness.