http://www.govtech.net/news/news.php?id=100227
FEMA, in conjunction with the Association of Public Television Stations, will begin sending emergency alerts to cell phones and other text-messaging-enabled devices in addition to the radio and television alerts that are currently broadcast as part of the Emergency Alert System (EAS). The wireless alerts service is expected to be in place sometime in 2007, according to a release from the Incident Page Network.What the report doesn't say, continues the release, is that such a system is already in place in the private sector in the form of "IPN," the Incident Page Network. Covering everything from tornado warnings to plane crashes to terrorist attacks, the IPN system sends out thousands of emergency alerts each week to cell phones, pagers, PDAs and e-mail addresses in real time, as incidents are happening.When a CTA train derailed and caught fire in the Chicago subway on July 11, injuring more than 150 people, IPN covered it live and sent numerous alerts to members with real-time status updates. IPN has covered many such high-profile incidents, including the space shuttle Columbia disaster over Texas in 2003, and most notably, the events of September 11, 2001. The IPN alert service is available to the public for a nominal fee through the IPN Web site. IPN also provides services to the news media, disaster relief agencies, and local, state and federal government agencies, including, ironically, the Department of Homeland Security, which manages FEMA. [Brief]
