Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)

-Local- Alert Systems are the backbone of disaster preparedness response and planning. Local TV and radio broadcast stations do the job the best they can . . but I question if they are as "real-time' as can be.

Perhaps more -interactive efforts- with the local emergency officials and their media departments could be encouraged so that "real-time" details of situations could be more effectively disseminated. This is especially needed for geographically small emergency alerts. Its frustrating to hear stuff like: Road XYZ is blocked by overturned tank truck . . . evacuation in progress . . . details at 11 PM. ;-)

I know Local Vs. National alerting is apples /oranges - but which is the more often used and needed system . . . Thats where money should be spent. (IMHO)

Having some sort of hook into social networking would be awesome; however I don't believe that it would be possible. In order to have it done effectively there would need to be federal legislation passed to require all social networks to give the government access to some secure API... that would mean that the networks would have to be regulated in some fashion by some agency, like the FCC... I don't see that happening...

SMS is a viable option as wireless telecomms are under FCC regulation. Using rules similar to those establishing the EAS requirements for TV and radio could allow for/require the installation of a device connected to the telecomm's messaging gateway. The device could receive a paging tone which would trigger the sending of a simple SMS message to all customers stating something like "EAS has been activated. Please tune to local TV/radio for more information."

...if this were to happen, a messaging gateway and device would then exist that the aforementioned social networks could then voluntarily opt-in to. The social network would receive notification via their EAS box, and it would trigger a mass notification of some sort.

...on a local level having some sort of auto-dialer could be possible. Several communities have taken advantage of contracting with companies for mass dialing of residents--residents opt-in to these systems. An agreement could be made between these companies, FEMA, and the FCC to install equipment to receive EAS alerts--the trouble would be that the systems have to dial out to X number of residents and only have x number of lines available at a time. A dialing process on a national level trickling down to a local level would take a lot of time, and cause congestion on the phone networks.

...a possible solution on more local efforts would be have every home outfitted in a manner similar to some CSEPP communities--with a required radio receiver installed in and registered to a home/business. This radio would receive a paging tone and activate giving an audible and textual readout of the alert.

...I don't see that one going over well, though, as it would be considered as an invasion by some. Safer and easier bet would be to use the NWS for that purpose and have John Q. Public buy a weather radio if he wants--which I thought was part of the plan...

I agree with Sondra. Even though I'm "tapped in" to the EM community, I never heard the alert. FEMA should have used all communication methods available to it in order to conduct the National Alert, to include Twitter, Facebook, text, and instant message.

According to sources 99% of adults between 25-34 own a cell phone (Halliday, 2011), while only 56% of households pay for cable television (A.C. Nielsen Co., 2009). Perhaps a more effective system of nationwide alerting would be to include text alerts to phones. As the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) required broadcasts to subscribe to the Emergency Alert System, the same could be done for mobile and internet service providers.

Finally, have we conducted a evaluation of the effectiveness of the Nationwide Emergency Alert? Have we surveyed our intended audiences to evaluate if they received the message?

Works Cited

A.C. Nielsen Co. (2009). Television and health. Retrieved November 12, 2011, from http://www.csun.edu/science/health/docs/tv&health.html

Halliday, J. (2011, August 4). Facebook and Twitter fuel iPhone and BlackBerry addiction, says Ofcom. Retrieved November 12, 2011, from The Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/aug/04/facebook-twitter-iphone-blackberry-addiction-ofcom

Stevens, A. (2011, November 9). National alert test set for 2 p.m. Wednesday. Retrieved November 12, 2011, from Atlanta Journal-Constitution: http://www.ajc.com/news/national-alert-test-set-1219676.html?cxtype=rss_news

The test was also done to see if the present capabilites were suffiecent to do a alert. Sadly there was some issues to work out. But atleast there is a understanding of what is to be done. Using the Social Networks have thier benefits, but if the electric grid is down I am not sure how many people will be going to Twitter or Facebook for emergency reports. But it is a idea worth thinging about. And Perhaps a Application for the new Smart Phones just for the public to be notified of emergencies or threats. But there again is the issue of if the Networks are up and operating properly.

Hence why the test, they needed to know were the system was failing. And since interrupting cell phone signals to inform the population of threats is to intrusive and invades privacy they need as much help as possible. See the other ideas on this think tank.

I did not get one either. Not only did I not get one from my media broadcaster to my cell phone but my NOAA radio I purchased from the American Red Cross didn't either. Unbelievable. The Media Broadcaster sends me weather alerts that I receive and the NOAA radio sends me Wednesday 12:00 p.m. Test alerts and other weather alerts just fine. I did not like how the major media outlets didn't follow-up and let us know how the test went. We have a lot of communications issues still to be resolved in this country.. but I am glad we've finally begun.

I think we all agree on the problem, but I'm not sure "social networking" is the answer. These things have a short fad life cycle, are always changing to the latest thing, and someone will be left behind. The newest improvement on the horizon is the Personal Localized Alerting Network (PLAN)where cell phones receive instant 90 character warning in real time and localized to the immediate area of warning. The first test by the first carrier (Sprint) is in NYC this fall. Maybe we should offer "some encouragement" to spur the other carriers - all of whom have agreed to participate.

Considering it was the first nation-wide test, I understand it being scoped down to solely radio & TV, sadly the message time was scoped down as well (which I did not agree with); however, in the future, some further integration of other communication modes would prove fruitful, such as NWR. We should not always assume hitting social networking sites is the sole "outside the box" solution. A overloading or collapse of local networks (either cellular and/or regional WAN) might mean FB or Twitter got the message but cannot propagate it to users in a certain area. Real saturation would mean using as many modes as possible. Individual organizations with their own internal mass notification systems can further propagate alert messages. Our agency did that during the EAS Test knowing that not all of our employees were sitting in front of a television or by a radio. My BBY was on vibrate because I was in a meeting, but after receiving an SMS text, an automated voice call and an alert email, my "continually buzzing" mobile device got my attention. Hitting personal cells with SMS messaging is probably the fastest and will hit the most targets whether or not they use Twitter, Foursquare, FB or Google.