Terror Disaster Alerts US

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The US Senate Subcommittee on Disaster Prevention and Prediction met in 2005 to discuss building a modern, integrated all-hazards alert system capable of warning Americans about disasters or attacks by text message, as officials acknowledged that the Cold War-era Emergency Alert System, which reaches only radios and televisions, had never been fully activated even during the September 11 attacks. Senator Ted Stevens argued the country needed to reach people on their phones rather than the radios few still carried, while FEMA’s Reynold Hoover noted the technology to deliver mobile alerts already existed but that a genuinely national system would need to integrate the many separate regional alert schemes local governments had already invested in.