An emergency population warning is a method where by local, regional, or national authorities can contact members of the public to warn them of an impending emergency. These warnings may be necessary for a number of reasons, including:
Weather emergencies such as tornadoes, hurricanes, and ice storms. Geological disasters such as earthquakes, landslides, volcanic eruptions, and tsunamis. Industrial disasters such as the release of toxic gas or contamination of river water. Radiological disasters such as a nuclear plant disaster. Medical emergencies such as an outbreak of a fast-moving infectious disease. Warfare or acts of terrorism.
Many local areas use emergency population warnings to advise of prison escapes, abducted children, emergency telephone number outages, and other events.
Requirements
In order to develop an effective emergency warning system, certain things are required:
an agreement as to what constitutes an emergency in the area served by the system. This differs from region to region depending on the local climate, geology, and the like. an agreement as to who can initiate an alert. In some countries all warnings are transmitted by a single command center, while in others (such as the United States) a host of local, regional, and national agencies are authorized to initiate warnings. a system or systems by which the information can be quickly transmitted to the population. an education program to teach the general public how to recognize an alert or what to do if a warning is broadcast.
United Nations program
Early warning system is the term that the International Early Warning Programme coordinated by the United Nations uses for all systems that are used to send emergency population warnings.
The United Nations Development Programme uses the Send Word Now Emergency Notification System to alert its worldwide staff when an urgent situation arises.
Methods by country
Australia
The Standard Emergency Warning Signal was originally adopted by the Bureau of Meteorology in the 1970s for tropical cyclone warnings. It became a standard national emergency warning signal in 1995. It can be broadcast on radio, television, automated telephone calls and in some places by public address systems in the event of bushfire, flood, cyclone, tsunami, earthquake or terrorist attack.
If there is an emergency, Community Alert sirens will sound to alert the community to be impacted. There are Disaster Alert siren, Tornado Alert siren, Fire Tornado Alert siren, Tsunami Alert siren, Civil defense siren, Flood Alert siren, Hurricane Alert siren, Cloud Tsunami Alert siren and Bushfire Alert siren.
Emergency Alert Australia is also to disturb the normal activities if in emergency. Emergency Broadcast Speakers are also installed for in emergency, the Emergency Broadcast Speakers will announce the information to protect everyone.
Canada
On June 11, 2009, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) approved a proposal by Pelmorex, owners of The Weather Network and MétéoMédia, to receive must-carry status for the channels, in exchange for developing a "national aggregator and distributor" of localized emergency alert messages compliant with the Common Alerting Protocol. The alert system, known as Alert Ready, built on a backend known as the National Alert Aggregation and Dissemination system (NAAD), was first established in 2010, and further expanded as a result of consultation with government officials, broadcasters, and the CRTC. In August 2014, the CRTC ruled that all television stations, radio stations, and broadcast distribution undertakings had to begin mandatory carriage of local alerts relayed through NAAD by March 31, 2015.
The province of Alberta had its own system called the Emergency Public Warning System (EPWS). The EPWS was put into place after a major tornado swept through the city of Edmonton in 1987, killing 27 and causing millions of dollars in damage. Unlike the American EAS, however, broadcast of the EPWS was not mandatory on radio and television stations. It was broadcast on the CKUA Radio Network and was televised on CTV Two Alberta and other participating stations. EPWS warnings could be initiated by municipal police and fire departments, the provincial government, county authorities, tribal government agencies, Environment Canada, and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. CKUA developed and maintained the EPWS until January 2010, when it lost a bid to modernize the system to an outside vendor (the contract had provided 15% of the station's overall budget).