Cooper Notification’s latest release of its Roam Secure Alert Network (RSAN) allows approved state and local emergency managers to send imminent threat alerts directly from RSAN to FEMA’s Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) and next generation Emergency Alert Systems (EAS). WEA, part of FEMA’s Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS), is the government’s latest development to communicate to the public in an emergency by sending specially formatted text messages to all devices capable of receiving the alert in a specified geographic area.
Once the alert is created, RSAN sends it via Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) to the IPAWS Open Platform for Emergency Networks (IPAWS-OPEN), the federal gatekeeper for messages created by FEMA and the FCC. FEMA reviews the incoming message based on three criteria. The message must be urgent, severe and certain. If the alert meets these requirements and the agency has been trained and approved, the message is then sent to targeted cell towers in a specific geographic area. All devices that are registered on the towers and capable of receiving the message are then alerted.
- Reach the public at their current location, not just where they live or work
- Activate EAS broadcasts, which are sent over TV and radio channels, directly from RSAN
- Check the status of messages that they sent to FEMA
- Retrieve WEA and EAS messages from their region’s Collaborative Operating Group (COG), which can be distributed to their recipients
