• Program Information
• Fact Sheets

The Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS) Program Management Office (PMO) develops informational materials about IPAWS to increase understanding and awareness of this unique program.  These materials are periodically updated as components of IPAWS mature and new information becomes available.

Program Information

• IPAWS Strategic Plan (PDF 525KB, TXT 33KB)
  Strategy that establishes the IPAWS Vision, Mission, Goals, and Objectives. It is the cornerstone document upon which other programmatic and technical documents build.
  In Spanish: (PDF 341KB, TXT 42KB)
• IPAWS Outreach Plan for Communications and Partner Engagement (PDF 713KB, TXT 69KB)
  Roadmap to engage Federal, State, territorial, tribal and local partners as well as our private sector partners and the American people.
• IPAWS Architecture Diagram
  Diagram showing how standards-based alert message protocols, authenticated alert message senders, and shared access and distribution networks work together to deliver alerts and warnings to public interface devices.
• IPAWS Glossary
  Definitions of commonly used IPAWS terminology
• EAS Best Practices Guide (PDF 995KB, TXT 108KB)
  The Emergency Alert System (EAS) Best Practices Guide was created in partnership with EAS participants to support incremental improvements by providing basic guidelines for EAS operation and maintenance.
• State Toolkit for Adopting IPAWS
  The State Toolkit is designed to support State, territorial, tribal, and local emergency management officials understand, adopt, use IPAWS, and educate the American people about the public alert and warning system and how to access, use, and respond to information from the public alert and warning system.

Fact Sheets

• How to Sign up for IPAWS (PDF 102KB, TXT 6KB)
  Four steps for alerting authorities interested in becoming authenticated to sending alerts and warnings through IPAWS. Detailed instructions on how to sign up for IPAWS, with the necessary application form, are also available on the Alerting Authorities web page.
• Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) Fact Sheet (PDF 97KB, TXT 6KB)
  Descriptions of how the Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) is integrated into IPAWS and the benefits from using a single standard.
• IPAWS-OPEN Fact Sheet (PDF 98KB, TXT 3KB)
  The importance and features of the IPAWS Open Platform for Emergency Networks, or IPAWS-OPEN, which authenticates and routes alerts and warnings to existing and emerging public alerting systems.
• All-Hazards Emergency Message Collection System / HazCollect Alerting Fact Sheet (PDF 98KB, TXT 6KB)
  Details on how National Weather Service (NWS) dissemination services can be accessed by IPAWS to relay non-weather related alerts and warnings.
• Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) Fact Sheet
  Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) allow alerting authorities to use FEMA's IPAWS-OPEN platform to send geographically targeted text-like alerts to the public via their cell phones and other mobile devices.
• Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) Frequently Asked Questions
  Wireless Emergency Alerts messages are text-like alert messages received by your mobile device during an emergency in your area. The purpose of WEA is to provide an increasingly mobile American public with a free and fast way to receive critically important information.
• Emergency Alert System (EAS) Fact Sheet
  The Emergency Alert System is a national public warning system that requires broadcasters, cable television systems, wireless cable systems, satellite digital audio radio service (SDARS) providers, and direct broadcast satellite (DBS) providers to provide the President with communications capability to address the American people within 10 minutes during a national emergency.
• Overview of IPAWS for the American People
  Local police and fire departments, emergency managers, the National Weather Service, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and private industry are working together to make sure the American people can receive alerts and warnings quickly through several different technologies at home, at school, at work, or even on vacation.
• Alerting Inclusive of Audiences with Access and Functional Needs Fact Sheet 
  How the Common Alerting Protocol enables rich, multimedia messages which can be leveraged by emerging assistive technologies to provide alerts and warnings to the whole community.
• How Indian Tribal Governments Can Sign Up For Public Alert and Warnings
  Tribal elected officials may designated emergency alerting authorities to apply for access to IPAWS for the purpose of sending public alerts and warnings within a tribe's jurisdiction. 
• Alerting Authorities Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) 
  IPAWS program provides an internet-based capability for Federal, State, territorial, tribal, and local authorities to use in order to issue critical public alerts and warnings.

Return to the FEMA IPAWS Home Page.