Public emergency alerts to be sent to all UK mobile phones

[Hollism]

9 hours ago, FoyleFox said:

The alerts are sent regionally in other countries, extreme weather etc. Perhaps they just send to an area using the geographical phone masts? 

This is what it is. They didn’t send us a normal text message yesterday, the phone masts send out the signal and anything that can pick it up, will pick it up. They’ll just send out any real alerts using the relevant phone masts.

[Stuntman_Mike]

13 hours ago, StanSP said:

So is a serious emergency, to be honest.

Yeah..

[Dames]

We need these alerts to go off whenever Brendan Rodgers is within 10 miles of the City so we can prepare. 

[Sol thewall Bamba]

It's mad how worked up people have got about this. It must be the most interesting thing that's happened to a good number of people in months. 

[Parafox]

The chances of any area in the Midlands ever hearing this again are practically zero. 

 

Unless Putin decides to nuke one of the dullest and uninteresting areas of the country

[Paninistickers]

12 hours ago, Sol thewall Bamba said:

It's mad how worked up people have got about this. It must be the most interesting thing that's happened to a good number of people in months. 

Imagine my disappointment then, having looked forward to this for months,.I didn't even get the message. 

[pleatout]

5 hours ago, Parafox said:

The chances of any area in the Midlands ever hearing this again are practically zero. 

 

Unless Putin decides to nuke one of the dullest and uninteresting areas of the country

Really?  Hillsborough, Buncefield, 7/7, '97 Grand National, York and Carlisle floods, Kegworth air crash would all have possibly benefited from an alert.

 

I suppose the city power cut 6 years ago, if it had been worse might have triggered an alert.

 

[Parafox]

9 hours ago, pleatout said:

Really?  Hillsborough, Buncefield, 7/7, '97 Grand National, York and Carlisle floods, Kegworth air crash would all have possibly benefited from an alert.

 

I suppose the city power cut 6 years ago, if it had been worse might have triggered an alert.

 

I suppose so. I just thought it was aimed at more widespread events such as major flooding, wild fires. That kind of thing,

[dsr-burnley]

9 hours ago, pleatout said:

Really?  Hillsborough, Buncefield, 7/7, '97 Grand National, York and Carlisle floods, Kegworth air crash would all have possibly benefited from an alert.

 

I suppose the city power cut 6 years ago, if it had been worse might have triggered an alert.

 

This system is supposed to be for emergencies where you can take action to avoid danger.  No use at all at Hillsborough, they won't use it as a general rule for terrorist alerts because non-specific bomb alert messages would just cause panic - they would use the local tannoy to tell people which way to move.  Floods happen slowly and don't need emergency alerts, though I suppose a normal text message might be helpful for people who have few friends and didn't notice it was raining.  And notice of plane crashes that have already happened is a bit superfluous.

 

I can't see what it would be used for in its official capacity, because we get hardly any events in this country that need mass immediate action.  Perhaps the Cumbria gunman as suggested above, but even then they need to balance the risk of an alert telling people to take cover, with an alert telling the gunman where his next victim is hiding.

[pleatout]

On 25/04/2023 at 10:20, dsr-burnley said:

This system is supposed to be for emergencies where you can take action to avoid danger.  No use at all at Hillsborough, they won't use it as a general rule for terrorist alerts because non-specific bomb alert messages would just cause panic - they would use the local tannoy to tell people which way to move.  Floods happen slowly and don't need emergency alerts, though I suppose a normal text message might be helpful for people who have few friends and didn't notice it was raining.  And notice of plane crashes that have already happened is a bit superfluous.

 

I can't see what it would be used for in its official capacity, because we get hardly any events in this country that need mass immediate action.  Perhaps the Cumbria gunman as suggested above, but even then they need to balance the risk of an alert telling people to take cover, with an alert telling the gunman where his next victim is hiding.

 

From Govt website

Emergency Alerts is a UK government service that will warn you if there’s a danger to life nearby.

 

I think there is an assumption is that "danger to life" ends as soon as an incident has happened.

 

Buncefield -  One fuel tank exploded, others didnt but could have done.  Crowd crushes as people escape what ever the initial incident was? 

 

Prevention of people moving towards danger rather than away from it.  Wouldnt have helped in the Bradford fire, but most of the deaths were caused due to the fans "going the wrong way" ie going for the exits they were familiar with (that were locked) rather than going on to the pitch.  People do not behave rationally in stressful situations.  They will often follow others or follow what they know.

 

Plane crashes - given an alert can be sent from a single tower, an alert telling people what they should do might be quite useful.  The threat to life doesnt end once a plane has crashed.  Driving at 70mph into a fuselage on the motorway is going to ruin your evening.

 

Floods do happen slowly, until flood defences are breached and then they happen very, very quickly. Cheltenham floods 2007.  

On Saturday 21st July 2007, 4500 properties flooded and 810 residential properties were evacuated. 10,000 people were stranded on the M5, M50 and A40 and hundreds of cars were abandoned on county roads. In addition, the railway network failed. 2500 people were placed in rest centres.

 

Not sure what you mean by "Local tannoy" - megaphone?  That'll work on a racecourse, but not really over a wider area.

 

The alert system is just another tool that is available to the emergency services.  Aiming it car drivers like the Kegworth crash would probably be a bad idea, but hey it's not beyond the wit of man to make a phone read an emergency alert out loud.