Within 38 minutes this Sunday morning, I received two text/email alert messages from different governmental authorities. Both transmitted potentially important information, though on a very different scale. I thought I would mention them.
First at 8:22am, I received this from Miami-Dade County in Florida:
Miami-Dade Alerts: Miami-Dade County is under a tropical storm watch. Please prepare now for Fay and stay tuned to local media for more info
Then from up the Atlantic coast, this message hit my Blackberry:
On Sunday, August 17th, between 12:00 PM (noon) and 8:00 PM, there will be a movie filming at 1600 Market Street and the street will be shut down. There will be simulated gunfire during the filming. Please use caution around the area and expect limited traffic congestion. Sent by MaryAnn Marrocolo to 2993 individual users (e-mail accounts, pagers, Cell phones) through Philadelphia ReadyNotifyPA
Obviously, the Hurricane Fay information is more important to more people. However, to those near the impacted area in Philadelphia, this smaller alert could be very helpful. Further, while other media are informing Miami residents about Fay, this text/email probably is the only way that Philadelphians will hear about the movie ’shooting’. So, the takeaway is that these electronic alerts can be helpful both for major emergencies and small inconveniences.
2 responses so far ↓
1 An Emergency Manager From Washington State Offers Helpful Caution On Potential Geographic “Digital Divide” On Public Email/Text Alerts // Aug 25, 2008 at 9:38 pm
[...] my post last Sunday about the text/email alerts from Philadelphia and Miami, I received an email from Cheryl Bledsoe, an emergency manager from Clark County in Vancouver, [...]
2 Military Plane Scare Over New York City Underscores Need To Use Communications Tools To Alert Public In Advance // Apr 27, 2009 at 4:07 pm
[...] type of instance where officials should warn citizens in advance both through the news media and utilizing the new text/e-mail alerts such as NotifyNYC. These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and [...]
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