Disaster alert? Check your cellphone.

California weighs using text messages to warn residents during emergencies.

By Ben Arnoldy | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

from the May 15, 2007 edition

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OAKLAND, CALIF. - When a wildfire threatened resort areas of Catalina Island off Los Angeles last week, authorities used bullhorns to spread word of an evacuation.

If the lieutenant governor gets his way, officials trying to warn Californians of fires, floods, toxic spills, or earthquakes will have an additional tool: cellphones.

"All of the cellphones within range of those towers [on Catalina Island] would ring with an emergency message," says Lt. Gov. John Garamendi (D), describing the proposed cellular alert system, which could use text and voice messages. "Visitors as well as residents on the island who had cellphones, pagers, BlackBerrys, etc., would get the message."

Cellphones are now ubiquitous – outnumbering land lines in the US – making them an obvious part of any emergency alert system. Yet the necessary broadcasting technology has lain dormant for more than a decade, absent a strong push and planning effort by government agencies.

"Cell broadcast has been around for at least 10 years, but there's never really been a business driver for it. And so the cellphone companies haven't implemented that technology," says Art Botterell, a warning-systems expert. "It's something that they could do, but it's not quite turning on a switch. It does involve spending some money."

The lethargy around the issue has dissipated in the wake of the South Asian tsunami, hurricane Katrina, and most recently, the school shooting at Virginia Tech.

Congress last year passed the WARN Act, which calls for a cellular alert system. Mr. Botterell sits on a panel that will release recommendations in October for the law's implementation, which he expects sometime around the summer of 2008. California, meanwhile, announced last week that it isn't waiting on the feds.

The cellphone industry has representatives working with both efforts. "We think it can be done," says a spokesperson for the Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association. "It just has to be done properly."

A thicket of complexities must be whacked through, ranging from the technical to the philosophical.

One obvious concern is misuse. It's a problem already evident in the limited text-message alert systems already in place. Some states, cities, and institutions across the country have opt-in systems, where people can put themselves on a list to receive cellular alerts.

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