Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS)
System Enhancements
Currently, FEMA and its partners are working with tribal governments, broadcasters, and State and local emergency managers to pilot test elements of the IPAWS program with the goal of making the program available nationwide once testing is complete. FEMA is conducting pilot programs in the following locations:
- Alabama
- Alaska
- Delaware
- Florida
- Louisiana
- Mississippi
- New Jersey
- North Carolina
- South Carolina
- Texas
- Washington
- Wisconsin
- Puerto Rico
- New York City
The programs that are being tested are outlined in further detail below.
- Geo-targeted Alerting System (GTAS)
- The GTAS pilot is a joint public alert and warning project with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). This pilot is testing new technologies to give emergency managers the ability to predict hazard zones in near-real-time, to collaborate on which areas to alert and what the message should be, and then to deliver these alerts and warnings to residents in a specific geographic area based on risks and recommended protective measures.
- Web Alert Relay Network (WARN)
- The WARN pilot project provides emergency operations staffs with web-based collaboration tools and alert and warning capabilities. The WARN pilot project is also working to develop a two-way messaging framework based on international standards that supports emergency messages generated and sent by authorized emergency officials at the Federal, State, region, county, parish, or tribal level. In addition, the WARN pilot provides opt-in capabilities for the public in pilot locations to receive alert and warning messages on their computers, cell phones, pagers, and other devices.
- Digital Emergency Alert System (DEAS)
- The Digital EAS (DEAS) is a program to upgrade the existing EAS with digital technologies and international warning standards, such as the Common Alerting Protocol (CAP). Upgrades associated with the DEAS program include the provisioning of all public television stations across the USA to enable them to disseminate DEAS messages through their digital TV broadcasts. In addition, there are ongoing DEAS pilots at the State and Territory levels whereby an Emergency Operations Center can originate alerts and warnings using the Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) and then disseminate them using the public television station digital broadcasts.
- Emergency Telephone Notification (ETN)
- Allows emergency manager to log in and provide warning message
- Provides automated calling of all residents in a selected geographic area
- Enhanced ETN
- Provides additional servers to ETN to minimize the chance of outage
- Adds capability for translation from English to multiple languages
- Deaf and Hard of Hearing Notification System (DHNS)
- Provides emergency information to the hearing impaired community
- Uses American Sign Language videos
- Information is sent over Internet and other communication devices
Last Modified: Wednesday, 12-Sep-2007 11:48:45 EDT