For Emergency Managers there is no more cost-effective alerting solution than NOAA Weather Radio. FEMA’s HMGP and EMPG grant programs will pay for up to 75% of the cost of Public Alert-certified weather radios, which can be programmed to warn for only your county, and the broadcast is free.
Using IPAWS software, EM’s can issue their own Non-Weather Emergency Messages (NWEM’s), including:
- Civil Emergency Message
- Wildfire Warning
- Evacuation Immediate
- Shelter-in-Place Warning
- Local Area Emergency
- Hazardous Materials Warning
- Dam Break Warning
- Nuclear Power Plant Warning…and many more!
Midland Radio partners with EM’s across the country to get “The Voice of the National Weather Service” into more homes, schools, and businesses. We all agree these devices should be as common as smoke detectors, but whereas smoke detectors are required by law, weather radios are required only by common sense, and that’s where EM’s come in.
Case in point: in the nocturnal Cookeville TN tornado of 2020, National Weather Service warnings activated weather radios eleven minutes before the tornado struck, saving many lives. But wind-damaged cell towers failed to alert. The nineteen fatalities in Putnam County are a stark reminder that every American should have multiple, redundant ways to receive their alerts. Cell phones, outdoor sirens, reverse 911, and TV broadcasts all have their place, but anything can fail.
As a way to wake people up AND tell them WHY they were alerted, NOAA Weather Radio is the cost-effective answer. Outdoor sirens came out in the 1950’s and 60’s when folks left their windows open during tornado season, but inside today’s homes a weather radio is more effective and costs much less per household, with no budget-chomping maintenance fees.
Midland Radio Corporation will provide you with fillable grant paperwork for HMGP funding. We can pre-program and sticker your county’s Public Alert-certified weather radios so they are easy for residents to plug in and use. And when you order 100 or more, there’s no charge for shipping and we provide free “AA” batteries for the order. Call or email me, and I’ll be happy to assist you.
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