Emergency Broadcast Systems

This section of our technical library presents articles written about Emergency Alert Systems and Disaster Recovery definitions, terms and related information.

The 911Broadcast emergency notification and alert service can deliver a large number of phone calls using a network of phone systems employing digital phone lines simultaneously. Should a disaster such as a snow storm, wild fire or flood hit your area, 911Broadcast systems can alert your community quickly providing specific instructions if an evacuation is required.

This service is available using our emergency broadcasting systems. If a dangerous chemical spill occurs in your community, you can target specific areas to call. If a severe snow storm hits your area, your community can be notified of school closings or event cancellations.

Earthquake warning technology may soon be venturing into space to help predict this natural disaster.

In an article entitled "Earthquake Warnings in Ionosphere?" by Larry O'Hanlon, Discovery News, he states:

"Earthquakes may be sounding an early warning system in the outer reaches of the Earth's atmosphere, says an international team of scientists.

For decades, Russian scientists have been claiming that earthquakes can be preceded by changes in the airless, but electrically charged, ionosphere on the edge of space.

But they've never been able to explain why the ionosphere would be affected by something happening inside the ground. That's one of the reasons U.S. scientists have disregarded their work.

Now, in the latest issue of the Journal of Atmospheric and Solar-Terrestrial Physics, a team of scientists from Ukraine, Mexico and Japan have taken a step closer to the ground by modeling how ionospheric changes can be influenced by electrical changes from below.

"It's not so crazy," said rock chemist Friedemann Freund of NASA Ames Research Center and California State University, San Jose.

For centuries people have reported seeing electrical flashes, strange lights, fogs and strange animal behavior before quakes strike, Freund said. If electrical fields generated in the ground before earthquakes are behind those phenomena, it's possible the same electrical fields are affecting the ionosphere, he explained.

The researchers are quick to point out, however, that a lot more needs to be done to understand the details of what's going on in the ground and in the sky before anyone can start making earthquake forecasts.

"The general situation now is (that) it is necessary to study first the physical mechanisms and after that to consider a possibility of forecasting," said Yuriy Rapoport of the Kyiv National Taras Shevchenko University in Ukraine and Western Montana College, a co-author of the new study.

Originally, Russian scientists in the former USSR noticed electrical changes in the ionosphere in the days leading up to earthquakes by studying data beamed down from classified Soviet military satellites. Naturally, that data could not be shared with Western scientists at the time, Freund said.

Since then not a lot of Russian research into the strange ionosphere changes has been translated, or it has received a dubious reception by Western scientists who generally abandoned earthquake prediction research in the 1970s.

The truth is, Freund said, lots of things can change the ionosphere, including solar storms. That makes it hard to be certain that earthquakes are to blame. That's exactly why the new study is so important; it's an attempt to explain the connection, if it exists at all. "

Earthquakes - Emergency Dialers For Earthquake Alerts

Should an earthquake strike in your area, our phone service could help notify your community quickly with emergency instructions. With our emergency notification phone service, emergency warning messages can be broadcast to thousands of households in your community. Messages can be simultaneously delivered in just minutes using our network of phone systems and services.

Pre-recorded warning messages can be played giving households information regarding the earthquake location and whether a community evacuation is planned or necessary. You can send a broadcast warning to specific neighborhoods or communities in the event of an earthquake and provide priority delivery of these messages to those nearest the earthquake epicenter. Multiple messages can be delivered to different members of the community based upon proximity to the disaster. Calls can be directed to operators that are standing by to handle special individual emergencies. Messages can also be broadcast seeking volunteers or special assistance from emergency personnel.

Other applications include warning residents in a geographic area when the danger associated with the results or aftershock of an earthquake is at a high level. Travel and activity restrictions can likewise be broadcast using this service.

Earthquake alert messages sent to households in this fashion can be simple warnings with specific or general instructions. If the community needs feedback from the call, an interactive response can be programmed into the message allowing the person to either acknowledge the call or to contact someone. Messages can vary based upon proximity to the event, with different degrees of broadcast warning and instructions.

To learn more about our earthquakes warning and emergency response / disaster recovery phone service, please visit our Emergency Broadcast System web page.