The Miami Herald reports that U.S. Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (FL) told forecasters and federal, state, local and Red Cross emergency managers on Friday that the nation’s emergency warning system needs to join the wired and increasingly wireless 21st century. During a House subcommittee hearing on national and state hurricane preparedness held in Miami, he argued that ‘the more ways in which the public can be warned, the better they can react,” and that he is drafting a bill intended to push the Federal Emergency Management Agency to speed development of a warning system that would work across multiple platforms, from text to Twitter to whatever comes next.
We’ve seen progress on this front lately (including the Mississippi Department of Transportation’s decision to use Twitter for evacuation route updates), but clearly there’s plenty of room for government agencies at all levels to better use technology. Has your community looked into using high(er) tech solutions to help protect people and property from storms? Let us know it the comments.
National Hurricane Center Urged to Update Warning System, from the Miami Herald.