In late January, Google’s not-for-profit Crisis Response division announced the release of its new emergency alerting platform, Google Public Alerts. The platform is designed to bring relevant emergency alerts – severe weather, public safety, earthquakes, tornados, and more – to the top of the Google search results.
When a major weather event is headed your way, go to Google and search for the information you need (example – “Flooding Maryland”). Google Public Alerts should be able to tell you what’s happening, where and when the severe weather will strike, how severe it will be, and what resources are available to help.
Google has integrated feeds from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the National Weather Service, and the US Geological Survey (USGS) with Google Maps to provide timely and in-depth emergency alerts. Google is also encouraging all authorized local public safety officials to post emergency notifications, as well.
Steps to Participate in Google Public Alerts
1. Get alerts into the Common Alerting Protocol (CAP 1.2) standard.
2. Validate that feeds are set up correctly and the CAP message is correct.
3. Subscribe alerts to Alert Hub – Google’s message aggregator – and check that they’re working.
4. Notify Google when you’re ready so it can initiate next steps.
For any further questions on the impact of Google Public Alerts, simply contact ARK Systems at 1-800-995-0189 or click here today.
When you consider how crucial security can be, and when you think of all the options that you’re faced with today, one thing becomes clear. You need a contractor with experience. For assessment, design, installation, testing and service, ARK is the expert across the board.
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