Know your alerting tools: Test 25 Nov 18

On Sunday 25th November, the Bay of Plenty will be testing its alerting tools. Here is a summary of the three alerting tools used within the Bay:

Emergency Mobile Alert (EMA) is a national alerting tool that allows authorised emergency agencies to send messages to targeted  mobile phones. Agencies target cell towers, which relay the message to any phone within reach of that tower. The messages are sent via cellular data and can be prioritised as emergency messages, meaning they will be received immediately. There is no need to sign up, you will receive the alert if your phone is capable. Check to see if your phone is capable and set up your phone correctly here.

The Red Cross Hazard App is an application developed by the Red Cross but used as an alerting tool by authorised emergency agencies. The benefit of the Hazard App is that you can set your preferences to receive notifications for where you want. There is also an educational aspect to the hazard app, where you can learn how to prepare for different emergencies. Like EMA, the Hazard App uses cellular data, meaning the alert is received immediately. Due to the speed at which EMA and Red Cross Hazard App can send alerts, these are the primary altering tools within the Bay of Plenty. 

Text Alerting is a regional tool that allows the civil defence authorities to send mass text messages to those who have subscribed. The tool was developed prior to EMA and the Red Cross Hazard App. Sending a mass text to a large number of people at once can sometimes take some time, which is why EMA and the Red Cross Hazard App are the primary means of alerting in the Bay of Plenty. If your phone is not capable of receiving EMA or downloading the Hazard App you can subscribe to text alerts here.