Bush orders update of emergency alert system

President Bush has ordered Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff to overhaul the nation’s public warning systems, acknowledging a critical weakness unaddressed since the 2001 terrorist attacks and exposed again last year by Hurricane Katrina.
The Emergency Alert System, best known for weather bulletins and Amber Alerts for missing children, should be upgraded to explore communicating by cellphones, personal digital assistants and text pagers targeted to geographic areas or specific groups, U.S. officials said.
In a 30-paragraph executive order issued by the White House without comment, Bush assigned Chertoff to implement a freshly stated U.S. policy “to ensure that under all conditions the President can communicate with the American people,” including in cases of war, terrorist attack, natural disaster or other public danger, The Washington Post reports.
The move follows mounting criticism that the nation’s alert systems are outmoded relics of the Cold War. The first was set up in 1951 to enable the president to address the public in the event of nuclear attack through a chain of television and radio broadcasters.
Under existing rules, for example, participation of broadcasters in state and local alerts is voluntary. The Federal Communications Commission limits messages to two minutes, and the system’s technology is outdated.
The Emergency Alert System was never used during the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, but the independent commission that investigated them concluded that “adequate communications” are central to government and private-sector preparedness.
In February, the White House again called for an update of the Emergency Alert System in its report on the flawed response to Hurricane Katrina, noting that state and local officials failed to use it to warn the public before the storm, the Post reports.
A spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security said Congress has set aside $25 million over three years for pilot studies of public notification efforts such as reverse 9-1-1 calling programs or text messages sent to personal pagers.
But the White House order calls for “an integrated alert and warning system that reaches as many Americans as possible through as many forms of communication as possible — television, radios, PDAs, cellphones, etc.,” said Homeland Security Department spokesman Russ Knocke. “We’re talking about a quantum leap forward.”
The program would be managed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.