Emergency Mobile Alert Testing – Sunday

by | Nov 24, 2017 | MailChimp

Kia Ora,

Please see the update below on the Emergency Mobile Alert

There are links there with more information from the Ministry. Please share with your colleagues and networks.

 

Emergency Mobile Alert (EMA) update

On Sunday 26 November the Government will be launching a new Emergency Mobile Alert (EMA) service to keep people informed in an emergency.  Lead by the Ministry of Civil Defence & Emergency Management, we are partnering with other authorised agencies; New Zealand Police, Fire and Emergency New Zealand, Ministry for Primary Industries, Ministry of Health and other Civil Defence Emergency Management Groups; to use the EMA to alert people if their lives, property or health are at serious risk.  The system uses cell broadcast technology to send messages to enabled phones, so alerts can be targeted to specific geographic locations.  People won’t need to sign up to receive alerts, or download an app, alerts will be sent to every enabled phone in the region.  This is an exciting development towards strengthening our emergency alerting systems across New Zealand and is another channel for warning people when there is a serious risk.

Nationwide public test

The Minister of Civil Defence announced that there will be a nationwide public test of the EMA system on 26 November between 6pm and 7pm.  An alert will be sent to the entire country, across all mobile networks (Vodafone, Spark and 2Degrees).  The Ministry of Civil Defence & Emergency Management website will have an interactive facility for people to check why they did not receive an alert.  If a person determines that they should have received the alert, then the system will encourage them to submit information that will allow MCDEM to investigate further.  The test will be followed up by a public survey.

Promotion

We are in the ‘it’s coming’ phase of the EMA promotion campaign which runs until 26 November.  The campaign will help New Zealanders understand how EMA works and will publicise the upcoming nationwide test.  The ‘it’s here’ phase of the campaign will begin on 26 November shortly after the nationwide test.  This phase states that EMA is now live and educates people on what to do when they receive an alert.

 

What you can do

Help us promote EMA by using your own channels.  Do you have publications, mail outs, email newsletters?  There are lots of resources available for you on the website.

 

Nāku noa, nā

 

Ivan Yeo | Resilience and Welfare Advisor

Auckland Emergency Management

Mobile: 021 723 186 | DDI +64 9 890 7431 | Extn 46 7431