Disaster Recovery Emergency Planning and Disaster Recovery: Technological and Managerial Solutions

Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is a body that is entrusted with alerting, evacuation coordination and managing disaster situations. Their website http://www.fema.gov/emergency-alert-system-eas deals with emergency issues and how response to disasters are usually undertaken by the agency. This portal in particular covers the use if technology to advance alert systems to the general public during and impending disaster. The alert system that is used by the agency and several other bodies will be focus of the paper and a detailed look at how successful these alert systems described in the FEMA website are and how they can be improved to ensure a much higher success rate in the future.

The approaching disaster alert system described in the FEMA website is known as the Emergency Alert System (EAS). This is a system that is used by the alerting authorities to pass message to the broadcasters to give the alert to the public. It is indicated that it comes in handy when all the other means of communication are not available.

As noted in the website, there were several technological hitches that hit the alert system that hit the EAS when it was tested. The main technical hitch was that which...

This negatively affected the sound quality, introduced various echoes and hence distorted the alert message upon transmission.
Statement of the problem

Taking into account the hitches that are bound to be experienced in the alert systems that have been set up by the agency, compounded by the inability of the EAS to reach each individual wherever they may be as it largely relies on cable TV to reach the targeted audience, there is need to have a back-up plan that will enable quicker response to emergencies.

There is need to have a system that will bridge the gap left by the existing alert system that relies on sound and TV to pass the alert to the people of a given area. From the IT perspective, the agency needs to put a short message service that will be activated immediately there is an impending disaster. The system will utilize the existence of the satellite tracking system and the phone IMEI code to pass the message to the people at the point prone to disaster at a given time. This means that FEMA should liaise with the various mobile service providers o make this a success. Every time there is and impending emergency, the satellite tracking system will locate the mobile phones that are switched on within the danger zone that has been marked…