[EAS] Fwd: [ChicagolandSkywarn] WEA Enabled Phones to Receive Emergency Messages

[Ed Czarnecki]

Ray  - 

Actually, this would be a text messaging service your school district or
county gov't is using - a subscription-based service they use to send
text/SMS messages.   CMAS/WEA is a different animal.  A school district
would not be an accredited authority for sending a CMAS alert, and
definitely not a school closing.  

You likely did not get a TOR alert on your cell phone because the particular
text messaging service your school district is using is not ingesting NWS
alerts.  Some text messaging services can do this (at extra cost to the
district), many do not.

NWS alerts would eventually automatically go into IPAWS as CAP messages
   - high priority qualified alerts would go to CMAS/WEA (e.g. TOR ...)
   - these, plus all other weather alerts would be on the IPAWS ATOM feed
for CAP EAS devices to pick up.

Local, county and state emergency managers could get their own CAP
origination tool to post to IPAWS
     - similarly, they could post a high priority message destined for CMAS
     - these alerts could also appear on the IPAWS web feed for CAP EAS.

This all raises several implications for broadcasters and emergency managers
     - CMAS could drive increased usage of EAS - an emergency manager may be
focused on hitting cell phones, but they could also hit broadcast EAS as a
by-product.
     - this might present interesting coordination challenges for state EAS
planning.  That is, in some cases only state authorities can issue EAS
alerts (conventionally or via IPAWS), but counties/cities may want to use
IPAWS CMAS directly for cell phone usage.

We're seeing some of this evolve right now.  We have a CAP originator (the
DASEOC) that can connect with IPAWS.  By way of comparison, one state is
deploying the DASEOC, but keeping it access centralized at the emergency
management/state police level.  By contrast, another state is deploying a
series of DASEOCs at the state and county level - counties would also have
the ability to activate EAS/WEA directly.

Edward Czarnecki, Ph.D.
Senior Director - Strategy, Development & Regulatory Affairs
Monroe Electronics, Inc. / Digital Alert Systems
ed.czarnecki at monroe-electronics.com
www.monroe-electronics.com
www.digitalalertsystems. com

-----Original Message-----
From: eas-bounces at radiolists.net [mailto:eas-bounces at radiolists.net] On
Behalf Of ray at electronicstheory.com
Emergency Messages

I concur with both Ed and Mike - in that the system (or at least a similar
system) is already in limited use in our area.  Specifically - my son's
school district uses a similar system to blast everyone in the area letting
them know that there is a snow day.  Oddly, I got nothing when all the
tornadoes hit (and one of the schools was struck!).

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