CONTACT:
Allison Hadley, Public Information Officer
Phone: (225) 925-3966
FAX: (225) 925-7501

BATON ROUGE, La. – On August 1, 2007, the Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness (GOHSEP) enabled the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS).

IPAWS, administered by FEMA for the Department of Homeland Security, addresses the mandate and vision of Executive Order 13407 to create a comprehensive and modern public alert and warning system. The IPAWS components and pilot project work in conjunction with GOHSEP’s existing Emergency Alert System (EAS).

EAS provides GOHSEP and Parish Emergency Management Agencies the ability to transmit a national alert via radio and television stations to the public.  But few people listen to the radio or watch television during the work day and even fewer are listening or watching in the middle of the night.  In order to reach 95 percent of the listening audience, IPAWS can transform national emergency alerts from audio-only messages into a system that can reliably and efficiently send alerts by voice, text, or video to all Louisiana citizens, including those with disabilities or who cannot understand English.

Sandia National Laboratories, through the Department of Energy, is under contract to create the secure architecture, standards, protocol, and methodology for message authentication and distribution of alerts and warnings. 

FEMA and Sandia are working with GOHSEP to enable four IPAWS pilot projects:  the Web Alert and Relay Network (WARN), the Emergency Telephone Notification (ETN) and Enhanced EAS, and Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Notification System (DHNS).  These four pilot projects will be tested through December 31, 2007.

IPAWS will help provide critical and timely information alerts and warning that will save lives and property not only to governmental agencies, but to the general public, business, schools and other groups. MyStateUSA will provide the “opt-in” of IPAWS, citizens have the opportunity to sign up directly for notifications by going to www.mystateusa.com and signing up for the “Alert Sense”. In the “Alert Sense” you can select the types of warnings and advisories that you would like to receive. Once they have signed up for alerts, citizens do not have to be near a radio or television. They can receive emergency information instantly through their preferred form of communication. This is particularly beneficial to the hearing impaired that may choose to receive alerts via email or text message or default system.

Through MyStateUSA, the state can alert citizens, parish emergency managers and other groups almost instantly. Parishes can utilize MyStateUSA to send emergency alerts directly to parish residents by phone. Parishes may also send alerts internally to staff and emergency personnel.

“The MyStateUSA pilot program gives the state the opportunity to communicate directly with our citizens through their preferred method of communication – email, cellular phone or text messaging. This will be an asset to our state as well as our parish partners, and we are excited to be a part of this new program,” said Col. (Ret.) Jeff Smith, acting director of GOHSEP. 

The State of Louisiana received the program at no cost until December. Should the state elect to continue the program and extend state-wide, the estimated cost of the program will be around $1 million.