Bush Orders Update of Emergency Alert System

BUSH ORDERS UPDATE OF EMERGENCY ALERT SYSTEM
[SOURCE: Washington Post, AUTHOR: Spencer S. Hsu]
President Bush yesterday ordered Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff to overhaul the nation's hodgepodge of 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, President Bush assigned Sec 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 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 The Federal Communications Commission limits messages to two minutes, and the system's technology is outdated.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/26/AR200606...
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* Executive Order: Public Alert and Warning System
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/06/20060626.html