About
Connect with AWARE
SRA International, Inc. Strategy and Performance Group (formerly Touchstone Consulting Group)
Source: Radiomuseum.org
Yes, the image above has two triangles. Otherwise known as “Civil Defense” symbols, they are images of the Cold War.
CONELRAD: Radio meets the Civil Defense describes the two radio channels folks would tune to listen for news and updates in the “event of an actual emergency”.
CONELRAD became the Emergency Alert System and the triangles on the AM radios on the dash of the automobiles became Cold War Relics.
That was then and this is now. Has it improved? Today, there is competition for the message. The emergency manager is challenged with getting the word out to folks listening to their MP3 player inside a house with the windows shut and the vacuum running.
No longer does the emergency manager have two frequencies upon which to place his warning message. The emergency manager must be aware of ALL the methods is customer uses to get news and information and, yes, even entertainment.
When the emergency manager hears that the customer wants him to be on Social Media, which one of them should he use? Does he dare omit Twitter to favor Google+? Does he simply say “I’m on Facebook. If you want the message, tune there.”?
This is why warning professionals encourage folks to have THREE ways to get information. At any given time, all three will be working or two may not.
What three are you using?
Almost a year has passed since the roll-out of Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA, previously known as the Commercial Mobile Alert Service, or CMAS). In this time, public safety officials (primarily the National Weather Service) have sent about 3,000 WEA messages to mobile devices. News stories on this new capability are becoming more commonplace, and more WEA-capable mobile devices are coming online. You may have even received a WEA message on your device by now.
Unfortunately, some message recipients have responded to these messages by looking for a way to turn them off—presumably because they do not perceive the alerts to be relevant to them or their local area. They then take to their phone looking for the settings menu where they can opt out of the alerts.
Continue reading »
Yesterday, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) released Order DA 13-280, stating that the Commission is revising its Part 10 rules by changing the name Commercial Mobile Alert System (CMAS) to Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA). These are the wireless alert system technical rules governing the participating cellular wireless carriers, which the FCC calls Commercial Mobile Service Providers (CMSPs). This change is effective upon publication in the Federal Register. Continue reading »
The FEMA test laboratory at the Joint Interoperability Test Center (JITC) – photo courtesy of FEMA
FEMA recently held a webinar giving the latest details on its Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS), as well as tips for local alert originators on acquiring and using IPAWS alert origination systems. The session also offered an update on the forthcoming alert originator test lab detailed in December here on AWARE. Continue reading »
Weather alerts for the New York City area during Superstorm Sandy, as displayed by Google Public Alerts
Hurricane Sandy put social media’s value for emergency response on the front page. Patrice Cloutier goes so far as to assert that “there’ll now be a before Sandy and post-Sandy in SMEM.” There’s no doubt: people use social media during disasters to get and give information and to interact with authorities. But is this the full picture? This article looks more broadly at social media’s potential and asks some questions we’ll be exploring in future articles. Continue reading »
