Broadcasting emergency messages by phone especially to volunteer emergency services has become more common due to the growth of cellphone usage which are carried by almost everyone all of the time, this has replaced more traditional methods such as firing a maroon to call out the lifeboat crew and more modern methods using a pager.
The advantage to modern broadcasting of emergency messages by phone is that those contacts called can respond as to whether they have heard and understood the message, and provide further information.
The feature of being able to respond to an emergency broadcast message is particularly useful for volunteer local emergency services such as lifeboats crews and firefighters. Recent figures suggest that over 70% of firefighters in the USA are volunteers. Emergency broadcast messages are sent out to the local emergency services who can then respond as to whether they can attend the emergency and even give an estimated response time as to when they can attend.
Conversely, information can easily be given in the broadcast emergency message as to the nature of the emergency, which may be especially useful for Community Emergency Response Teams organised by FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency)
For volunteer organisations such as the American Red Cross, broadcasting emergency messages by phone is a cost effective way to reach their first responders as little investment in equipment is required, as almost everyone has a cellphone.
In the case of the Emerzia emergency voice broadcast system, all that is required to broadcast emergency messages is a computer, reliable broadband and an internet telephony service provider. Thousands of emergency broadcast messages can be sent out in a matter of minutes to both the general population and to first responders.
Emerzia is an emergency dialer system, using Voice over IP and or traditional landlines such as PRI.
Emergency dialer systems were first deployed in the 1990's and now almost everyone has had experience with auto-dialers receiving messages on the phone usually for marketing purposes, but this is not the only use for auto-dialers.
Emergency Dialer Systems are becoming more and more popular due to the reducing price of the technology coupled with increased hardware power and bandwidth, and have proved to be exceptionally effective at disseminating information to the general public for a range of emergencies.
A.M.B.E.R alerts to search for missing children, warnings of gas leaks, weather warnings and violent offences in progress are all examples of where Emergency Dialer systems have proved their worth time and time again.
At a more mundane level, the cost of the technology, especially from Emerzia, is such that emergency system dialer technology can be deployed to much smaller communities, schools, church groups and local emergency services to disseminate messages regarding meetings and appointments, as well as message with a greater element of emergency. Even a small Emerzia system can send out thousands of emergency messages per minute.
Similar systems have been deployed to Universities and local government in USA and Canada as well as in numerous other locations around the world doing service as both as emergency dialer systems and also providing health care information by phone to less developed countries.
Emergency Broadcast Systems have been deployed for hundreds of years, and there is evidence to show that as early as the 9th century during the Arab-Byzantine wars, beacons were used to warn of invasion. Modern tests have shown that a warning could be passed over the main line of beacons, 450 miles in length in under an hour.
Beacons were used in Elizabethan England to warn of the approaching Spanish Armada, and many hills are now named Beacon Hill as a result. Indeed the range of hills bordering Wales are known as the Brecon Beacons, and were so named from when beacon fires were lit as an early type of of Emergency Broadcast System to warn of English marauders.
Church Bells also have a history of being used as Emergency Broadcast Systems; during the 7th century, it was said that the Bishop of Aurelia rang the bells to warn people of an attack, but when the enemy heard them for the first time, they ran away in terror. During World War Two, the church bells were silenced in Great Britain for the duration of the war, only to be rung to warn of an invasion by enemy forces.
In later years, bells such as fire alarms, klaxons and sirens and whistles have all been used for emergency broadcast systems. Air-raid sirens were set up in England Europe, and North America, particularly in during the Cold War and known in England as the four minute warning. However, sirens are not just for times of war and civil defence, but are still used for emergency weather warnings and tsunami alerts.
However, the problem with the methods used above, although effective in their day, do not communicate any detail of the problem, and in most instances can only warn of one thing, but not tell people what to do.
With this in mind, many countries, in particular the USA have tried to address this with a number of Emergency Broadcast Systems, the latest is designed so that the president can speak to the USA within 10 minutes.
Emerzia is a Voice Broadcast system that can provide emergency broadcasts to peoples telephones via SMS and voice for local communities right up to large university campuses and metropolitan areas.
An emergency notification system, especially when coupled with other methods of dissemination of information, can be very effective as shown in a number of case studies covering the last few years.
In May 2010, a water pipe broke in Boston leading to unsanitary mains water affecting approximately two million people and it was felt necessary to use the Emergency Notification System to issue an alert to all residents asking them to boil their water before drinking it.
Again in Boston, after the Marathon Bombings of April 2013, the Emergency Notification system was brought into operation during the manhunt for the perpetrators.
Emergency alerts were sent out by SMS as it was feared that cellphone voice networks may be overloaded. However this was not the case so messages were sent out via voice as well, asking people to “Shelter in Place” or “lockdown”. Later the lockdown was lifted by sending SMS and voice messages via the Emergency broadcast system and the remaining suspect was apprehended.
In Granby, Colorado, a man with a feud with Granby officials built an armoured bulldozer and went on the rampage. The Emergency Notification System was utilised to inform residents and property owners that there was risk to life. Despite a great deal of damage to property, nobody but the bulldozer driver was killed. It is suspected that this was due in part to the emergency notification issued by the authorities.
In Wilton, New York and 17,000 gallon propane tank leaked in February 2014. Using the Emergency Alert System, residents within half a mile of the scene were alerted by phone to evacuate to the Firehouse. Although there was no explosion, people were easily moved to a place of safety.
There are many more instances where lives have been saved, and the safety of the local population has been enhanced by using Emergency Notification Systems.
Emerzia is an Emergency Notification System capable of making hundreds of thousands of calls per hour.
Emerzia is an Emergency Alert System used for delivering Emergency Alerts providing notifications to contact's telephone numbers and via a recorded message or SMS.
Traditionally, emergency alerting has been a government run exercise, with the first emergency alert system in the USA being created in the 1950's. The US Government has deployed a number of emergency alert systems over the years with a varying degree of success, often using broadcast mediums such as television and radio.
However these emergency alert systems were not easily accessible to local communities, local government and public safety organisations but with the penetration of mobile phones, emergency alerting can easily be done by phone rather than via radio and television.
Couple this with the relatively low cost of computer hardware, bandwidth and VoIP telephony, emergency alert systems are within the reach of almost any budget, and conversely, can be scaled almost without limit.
Emerzia can be used in variety of circumstances from minor to major emergencies, examples of which may be include anything from natural events such as weather information including floods, strong winds and snow to man-made events such as terrorism, chemical spills and other accidents delivering emergency alerts at high speed.
The concept of an emergency broadcasting system has been around for hundreds of years. In years gone by, the local church bell would be tolled to warn of invasion and other emergencies and beacon fires would be lit to spread the message further.
Latterly, sirens are used, notably during war to warn of air raids, and famously, the “Four Minute Warning” to warn of an impending nuclear attack, and all are familiar with the concept of fire-alarms in buildings.
However effective these methods may be, one of drawbacks of this kind of warning is that it cannot indicate the nature of the hazard or how to react.
The modern approach of using reverse emergency voice broadcasting can supplement the traditional warning methods by indicating the nature of the problem and how best to react. Psychologically, people often want confirmation of a problem before they accept there is an emergency and, given that most people carry a mobile phone, voice broadcasting can be very effective in getting the message out.
Emerzia can play a valuable role in mass emergency warning and broadcasting contingency plans both in densely populated urban areas and small community and campus systems.