MEDIA RELEASE from the ESA website
A trial of the new EMERGENCY ALERT telephone warning system will be conducted in the ACT this Thursday 17 December 2009.
Minister for Police and Emergency Services, Simon Corbell announced the ACT Government will trial the new national telephone warning system, EMERGENCY ALERT, on Thursday 17 December 2009.
“The EMERGENCY ALERT system will provide our emergency services with another important option to alert the ACT community to an imminent or immediate threat or emergency situation,” Mr Corbell said.
“This message to mobile phones and landlines in any given area of the ACT will be in addition to already existing measures. These include real time radio, television and internet alerts and warnings via MOU agreements between the ACT Emergency Services Agency (ESA) and local media outlets.
“This week’s trial of the EMERGENCY ALERT will be conducted in Turner, Lyneham, O’Connor, Hall and Hume. Urban, rural and industrial areas have all been chosen to cover a range of possible scenarios.”
A comprehensive community awareness campaign will be conducted in the coming days to notify the ACT community of this important trial.
People with a landline telephone in the chosen trial areas will receive a test EMERGENCY ALERT voice message featuring the Standard Emergency Warning Signal (SEWS) sound. People with a mobile phone who have their billing address within the chosen trial areas will receive a test text EMERGENCY ALERT message.
“This means if your mobile phone billing address is within one of the chosen trial areas and you are not physically at that location at the time the test message is sent out you will still receive the test text message,” Mr Corbell said.
“People who receive the test EMERGENCY ALERT message will not be required to take any action.”
EMERGENCY ALERT has been developed by Victoria on behalf of Australian States and Territories including the ACT following agreement at the Australian Council of Australian Governments (COAG) in April this year.
Following the trial and completion of the commissioning phase, an implementation date for EMERGENCY ALERT in the ACT will be determined.
For more information about the EMERGENCY ALERT trial in the ACT go to the ACT Emergency Services website www.esa.act.gov.au or call Canberra Connect on 13 22 81.