Mississippi to build alert system for responders | 02.28.2006 | 08:49:45 | Views: 4810 | ID: February 28 '06: The Mississippi Department of Homeland Security has contracted a company in the state to build an alert system which "broadcasts a digital message through FM frequencies to emergency responders during times of crisis," a press release read. The announcement came last year after a severe hurricane season in which Katrina and Rita battered the Gulf Coast. Six months after Hurricane Katrina hit, only a small percentage of the population of New Orleans has returned while federal, state and local responder and emergency agencies try to find better ways to communicate in times of crisis in Mississippi and Louisiana. Global Security Systems will work with the state's department of homeland security to develop a network which will allow "a text message to be sent via FM radio signal to a designated group of individuals or to a specific location with whatever alert is appropriate. The targeting of a specific location is made available via an embedded GPS capability," the press release said. GSS has said it uses "the existing nationwide FM broadcast infrastructure found in all countries worldwide ... to provide Target Area Coverage message coverage and a proprietary messaging system that allows secured, layered and targeted messaging to need to know personnel." The system is expected to be in place by June 2006 and will work in cooperation with Mississippi Public Broadcasting (MPB) which will lend it's tower to use as the "backbone to the state-wide alert system."
Copyright ©2007 TheBreakingNews.com. All Rights Reserved. No reproduction in part or full without prior written permission.
|