Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Chicago to Introduce Emergency Alert System

From: Marcel <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 31 Mar 2003 13:36:37 -0500

Chicago to Introduce Emergency Alert System

In the next few weeks, Chicago will introduce a system that enables 911
dispatchers to call back residents on their landline or cell phones to notify them
of an emergency, and give them instructions on what to do. The system lets
dispatchers call back numbers in their 911 system databases in lots of 1,000 at
a time, according to the executive director of the city's Office of Emergency
Management.

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Chicago Rolls Out Emergency Notification System

911 Call Back System Sends Emergency Alerts

POSTED: 3:03 p.m. CST March 28, 2003
UPDATED: 5:58 p.m. CST March 28, 2003

CHICAGO -- A new system will be rolled out in the "next few weeks" to allow the 911
Center to call residents and businesses in Chicago as
well as to cellular phones, with alerts of an emergency
and what steps to take.

Cortez Trotter, executive director of the city's Office
of Emergency Management and Communications, made
the comments Friday during a taping at a local
television station.

Trotter mentioned the system, commonly referred to
as the 911 call back system, would be able to ring
more than 1,000 phone lines simultaneously with a prerecorded message alerting them
of the emergency.

Called the Emergency Warning and Evacuation System, the city would use its the
technological capabilities to reach "thousands of people within minutes with a recorded
message informing them of impending danger or any other information we want to pass
on to them," Trotter said after the taping.

The city would be able to notify "any phone line or cell phone that is able to dial in to
the 911 call number," Trotter said.

"We're using technology to dial back out and reach them," Trotter said. Even if a
person has never called 911, his or her phone number was in a database at the 911
center, he said.

The system could be activated for a manmade or natural disaster or even a hazardous
materials situation, he said.

"It doesn't have to be anything of any major, major catastrophic magnitude," Trotter
said.

For example, the system could have been implemented for a hazardous materials alert
that occurred two years ago on the Dan Ryan Expressway when a truck that was
carrying azodicarbonamide, a powdery substance used in making foam rubber, rolled
over, spilling the chemical and giving off fumes.

After detecting the direction the fumes were moving and the area that would be
impacted based on the wind speed and direction, the system could have been
activated, he said.

"What we can do is get ahead of it and draw a polygon around the impacted area and
say here's what's happening in your community and here's what we'd like you to do or
not do," Trotter said.

Steps could include seeking shelter in place, closing all the windows, or evacuating the
premises, he said.

He would not provide the cost for the system. He said the city requested funding from
the federal government to cover the cost. Also, Trotter talked about the city's terrorist
preparedness at the taping. He said there were no credible threats specific to Chicago.

"Chicago is as prepared as any major city in the country ... Being prepared and being
ready is not inexpensive," Trotter said.

If the national color-coded alert system were upgraded to the highest level, citizens
would see a substantial increase in law enforcement presence, he said. The city also
has a temporary flight restriction imposed over the downtown area and the Near North
Side.

"There are people on the ground that work in and around the downtown area in
high-rise buildings that ... still see the airplanes flying in close proximity to their
buildings, high-rise buildings as a threat based on what occurred in New York," Trotter
said.

The restriction did not affect commercial aircraft operating at O'Hare or Midway
airports, he noted.
http://www.nbc5.com/news/2072177/detail.html

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