One of my personal favorites is “The Emergency Email & Wireless Network”, available online at www.emergencyemail.org. This service, provided as a free service by a joint public and private partnership, offers a near instant notification to the subscriber of emergency news and events. Going to the website and clicking on “Texas” in the left column (all of the states are listed) opens another page listing the counties of Texas. Clicking on Jefferson, Orange, or any of the other nearby counties listed on the left side of this page, opens another page, which allows for a simple registration process, where the subscriber’s email address, county, and zip code are entered. All subscribers receive urgent national disaster or crisis news, and options are available by the use of a check box to enable the receipt of severe weather information, public utility outages, urgent organ donation needs, daily weather forecasts, blood drives and other Red Cross announcements, and “Amber Alerts” of missing children. An option is also available to allow the system to send advertisements, if selected. All of this information is localized. Sources of emergency information include city and county governments, the federal government, civil defense agencies, blood centers, utility companies, and the Red Cross. The information can be sent to the recipient by email, or received on an email capable cell phone or pager, as well as by fax. I receive all of this information by email, and the national crisis information on my cell phone. Most local cell phone providers now make receiving short emails available on the phones; typically the email address is the 10 digit cell phone number followed by the name of the cell phone company, such as 4095551212@cellcompany.com. Check with your cell phone company and see if your phone is capable of receiving emails, and if so, verifying your phone email address. Also be aware that some cellular plans offer the email service for free (in limited quantities), or for a nominal charge. If information is desired for more then one county, the quick and simple registration process is repeated.
That recent Friday when the federal government raised the threat level to “Orange”, my cell phone first alerted me to a new email message. A short and curt message from the emergency network informed me that the threat level warning had increased. Checking the major online news services, and then the radio and TV, gave the details of the first terse announcements. Since I was at work, I would not have known as promptly about the “Orange Alert” had it not been for my cell phone message. A short while later, I presided over a meeting where I notified the assembled group of the threat. At that time, no one else present was aware of the change. Without that message, none of us would have known until much later that afternoon. If the warning would have been for a more immediate threat, none of us would have known about it for several more hours had it not been for my original cell phone alert.
As a matter of personal convenience, there is an option available to turn off the cellular alerts between certain hours. Not wanting to be awakened at night, and having the TV or radio on almost always while home and awake, I selected not to receive cellular bulletins between 11pm and 6am. If national security changes merit, I will allow for 24-hour cell phone alerts.
Since receiving email via computer is virtually free, and I can access it at my convenience, I chose to receive all of the other categories of information on my computer. In recent months I have received hurricane and tornado warnings, severe weather statements from the National Weather Service, and evacuation information. The system can also send out warnings about health emergencies and natural disasters.
What makes this free service so valuable is the speed in which warnings can be disseminated. During the recent hurricane season, I was typically receiving the latest local statements from the National Hurricane Center in my email about 20 minutes before I saw it on the local or national media outlets. Since in some crisis situations a matter of minutes can literally be the difference between life and death, these saved minutes may prove to be vital. Recently “Amber Alerts” for local missing children was added to the system; hopefully they will never be sent, but unfortunately they will likely be transmitted. Maybe if enough of us received the alerts more quickly, the children could be located faster with an increase to their safety.
The system is flexible, and allows for local and state agencies to add their alerts to the system. Information on how to be added can be found on the “Public Services” link at the top of the main page. A similar service is available to businesses that need to alert employees or surrounding communities of potential dangers. Local school districts can use the service to notify residents of school closings or special events. Unfortunately, the only Texas schools to use the service are in Grand Prairie. It would be great if our local districts would do the same.
In these dangerous times, it is important that we are all made immediately aware of any possible threats to our community health and safety. This network may be a godsend.
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