Interested in how IPAWS works? Here are some online assets that may interest you.
IPAWS, as many RW readers know, is the Integrated Public Alert & Warning System, a national infrastructure established by FEMA in 2006 to improve local alerting through various channels.
Those channels include mobile phones, with Wireless Emergency Alerts; radio and television via the Emergency Alert System; NOAA Weather Radio; and digital media via the IPAWS All-Hazards Information Feed
IPAWS held a users’ conference in July to introduce public safety officials not yet using IPAWS to the system. While the focus was not on broadcast aspects, support materials from the conference provide interesting insights for anyone who wants to know more about this important system. Below are two of those videos. At bottom we’ve provided links to more conference assets.
In the first video, IPAWS Deputy Director Wade Witmer explains basics of IPAWS:
And this video provides a glimpse at the IPAWS Technical Support Services Facility, or TSSF, where alerting authorities can practice and train in the use of IPAWS.
More videos and slide stacks are available on the conference web page. They include a presentation by Jody Smith, TSSF lead, explaining the support facility in detail, and a talk by Al Kenyon on how alerting authorities can get connected to IPAWS as well as other presentations from the event.
