National Emergency Warning Systems Go Wireless

摘要

Most citizens equate the national emergency alert system with an annoying green screen accompanied by a high-pitched screech that inevitably interrupts a favorite TV program. However, recent natural disasters have left Americans wondering why government officials are still tied to old technologies—land-line phones, TVs, radios, and even wailing sirens—in their efforts to warn citizens about emergencies. Updating public emergency notification operations has become a top priority for local and national legislators in 2007, and Congress recently earmarked $20 million to update a system that hasn't undergone a major overhaul since the 1960s. One proposed solution requires no new equipment and relies on a technology most Americans carry around with them everywhere they go: cell phones. Wireless technologies could take emergency notifications off the grid and put them directly on citizens' cell phones within seconds.