FM-Based Digital Alerting Available for Universities

A company is touting a unversity emergency-alerting system that may help prevent repeats of the murderous Virginia Tech shootings.

Global Security Systems (GSS) of Jackson, Miss., is now able to deliver the ALERT FM system to universities and colleges.

Virginia Tech student Seung-Hui Cho's campus rampage left more than 30 dead before he turned his gun on himself. The gunman began his massacre in one campus building before breaking to send materials to NBC news and then returning to his killing spree. Some have said the campus should have had more warnings sooner after the initial killings.

ALERT FM is a personal alert messaging system that enables campus administrators, emergency management personnel or police to create and send notifications to students, staff, first responders or citizens, GSS says. The FM signal offers a unique advantage in that it has coverage for areas where cell signals may not operate, also in the case of a wider emergency a carrier signal can become overloaded and delayed or cease to operate. Additionally, there are no costs associated with message delivery, the company says.

Students and staff can receive alerts via ALERT FM receivers or USB sticks, as well as mobile devices equipped with a standard FM chip. By utilizing ALERT FM, campus security would have the ability to distribute real-time notifications for emergency situations, weather warnings, homeland security notices and evacuation instructions, according to GSS.

Many universities have a licensed FM station on campus or a commercial station serving the area. The alert messaging is delivered via a secure, private digital network, which utilizes existing FM standards and transmitters, GSS says. This system uses a standard FM commercial receiver chip inserted into an ALERT FM receiver or any mobile communication device. It provides mass distribution of emergency alert messages via a local radio station's FM infrastructure.

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NOAA Provides Critical Lead Time for Southeast Tornadoes

Tornadoes that tore across the Southeast on Thursday struck after significant advance warning from NOAA's National Weather Service, according to the U.S. National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

Preliminary Tornado Warning lead times -- the amount of time between the issuance of a Tornado Warning and the touchdown of a tornado -- ranged from 12 to 55 minutes, providing critical time for the emergency message to sound NOAA Weather Radio, commercial radio and television, and tornado sirens, the agency says.

For Enterprise, Ala., the preliminary tornado lead time is 18 minutes, NOAA says.

New storm-based warnings, introduced operationally by NOAA's National Weather Service last month, helped to better pinpoint the path ofyesterday's tornadoes resulting in extended lead times and a reduction inthe area warned, as compared to the previous county-based warning method. The tornado warning that included Enterprise, Ala., included a 71% reduction in areas that did not need the warning.

Starting today teams of National Weather Service meteorologists will beon the ground conducting damage surveys in order to determine the exactwind speed, width and path of each twister.

NOAA is not forecasting another severe weather outbreak in the coming days, but encourages residents across the country to purchase a NOAA Weather Radio All Hazards receiver at electronic retailers or online as an essential method of receiving potentially life-saving severe weather warnings.

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