As the 2012 hurricane season begins on Friday — with two named storms already in the books — emergency managers have a new way to warn many Americans about looming storms.
The ubiquitous cellphone is now a link to evacuation and other emergency information, Federal Emergency Management Agency Director Craig Fugate said Wednesday.
Fugate said that emergency managers will continue to use traditional media, particularly television and radio, to alert people to danger, but plugged the new system now available to most smartphone users that will push geographic-specific cautions to customers in the event of a crisis.
“We’re now able to broadcast to cellphones. That’s been a huge evolution,” Fugate said during a White House briefing Wednesday.
“We have implemented the technology nationwide to begin pushing information to cellphones,” he said.
Fugate, the former director of emergency management in Florida whose tenure in that job included the monster hurricane seasons of 2004 and 2005, also reminded Americans to make sure they have a cellphone charger, particularly a car charger, as part of their emergency supply kit.
He noted that while landlines are usually fairly reliable, many people now rely on mobile phones.
Many people who haven’t been through a hurricane recently might not remember to make sure they have a charger, particularly a car charger so they can charge their phone if the power is out, he said.
The Federal Communications Commission announced earlier this year that the PLAN system, or the Personal Localized Alerting Network, also known as CMAS, or the Commercial Mobile Alert System, now allows emergency officials to send targeted alerts to specific areas through cell towers to users near that tower.
The system could be used for any imminent threat, not just dangerous weather, including terrorist attacks or criminal activity alerts. Because it is based on nearby cell towers, only people in an area in danger would receive an alert.
For example, a customer in Miami who is visiting Tampa would receive alerts about Tampa while there, not about Miami.
Participation by cellphone users is automatic if their carrier participates, meaning they don’t need to sign up.
The alerts come into the phone and will appear similar to a text message, though the actual technology is different to prevent a slowing of the messages in congested areas.
The customer won’t be charged for receiving the messages.
Wireless phone companies were required to enable phones to accept the messages in early April, although their participation in the system is voluntary.
The alerts are only those involving imminent threats to safety, alerts issued by the president or Amber Alerts.
FEMA also has a separate service whereby cellphone users can text their ZIP code to FEMA and receive a message with nearby shelter locations.