Emergency text message test planned
Marlborough residents are set to benefit from a nationwide launch of a new service to keep people informed in an emergency.
The Ministry of Civil Defence and Emergency Management is partnering with other authorised agencies to roll out ‘Emergency Mobile Alert’ to alert people if their lives, property or health are at serious risk.
The system uses cell broadcast technology to send messages to enabled phones, so alerts can be targeted to specific places.
Residents do not need to sign up to receive alerts, or download an app, as alerts will be sent to every smartphone in the region.
A nationwide test of the Emergency Mobile Alert is taking place on Sunday, November 26, between 6pm and 7pm.
Marlborough Civil Defence communications manager Glyn Walters said the alert was of great interest to the region’s Civil Defence team, as it reviewed operations after last year’s earthquakes.
‘‘It’s a national text alert sys- tem, but it has the capacity to be used by regional civil defence grounds around the country, in addition to all our other methods - radio, Facebook, news media.
‘‘But it has its limitations too. There are parts of Marlborough that don’t have cellphone reception and there will be people with phones that won’t receive alerts.’’
Some cellphones just needed a software update which could be triggered in the cellphone’s settings with access to wifi.
‘‘Civil Defence recommends people upgrade their phones if they cannot receive the message,’’ Walters said.
‘‘Some people will like getting a text message, some people won’t. Many prefer radio, rather than getting a loud message in the middle of the night.’’
Hurunui District Council emergency management officer Allan Grigg said this was an exciting development towards strengthening emergency alerting systems across the district, particularly in light of the events of the past year.
‘‘The Emergency Mobile Alert will detail the situation, what to do, the time, the agency sending the alert, and if needed, where to go for more information.
‘‘While we are aware there are areas of the district with poor or no mobile phone coverage, this system is just one of many systems we use to warn the public.’’
Sunday’s test alert should appear automatically on the screens of capable mobile phones with a unique warning sound, as some Vodafone customers discovered in a series of accidental night-time alert tests last month. For more information and to find out if your phone is capable of receiving the alert, visit civildefence.govt.nz.