Public safety officials will soon be able to microtarget areas for cell phone alerts during natural disasters after the Federal Communications Commission on Tuesday approved changes to the nation’s emergency communications system.
According to govtech.com, the approved upgrades to the Wireless Emergency Alerts system will allow public safety officials to send alerts to all the cell phones in areas as small as one-tenth of a mile in radius once the new rules are adopted by the November 2019 deadline also approved by the FCC.
Previously, alerts could only be sent to all cellphones in a specific county -- a problem that was laid bare by Hurricane Harvey and the historic California wildfires.
"When disaster strikes, it's essential that Americans in harm's way get reliable information so that they can stay safe and protect their loved ones," FCC Chairman Ajit Pai wrote in a statement Tuesday. "Overbroad alerting can cause public confusion, lead some to opt out of receiving alerts altogether, and, in many instances, complicate rescue efforts by unnecessarily causing traffic congestion and overloading call centers."
The unanimous vote is a huge win for officials in disaster-prone areas across the country, who in the wake of a historic year of natural disasters had warned that the current system was woefully inadequate and could, in some instances, unnecessarily push otherwise-safe people into harm’s way.
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