With sev­er­al threats and haz­ards fac­ing T&T—from earth­quakes to hur­ri­canes to floods, and even in Fri­day’s con­text, a bomb threat–the pop­u­la­tion will have a new alert sys­tem to warn about ap­proach­ing and on­go­ing emer­gency is­sues.

At the launch of the Of­fice of Dis­as­ter Pre­pared­ness and Man­age­ment (ODPM) Na­tion­al Dis­as­ter Pre­ven­tion and Pre­pared­ness Month for 2023, the ODPM al­so launched the new Pub­lic Alert No­ti­fi­ca­tion Sys­tem (PANS).

Fol­low­ing a re­view of the Na­tion­al Alert State, Pub­lic Warn­ing, and In­for­ma­tion Pol­i­cy in 2022, the Cab­i­net agreed to two changes.

The first was to trans­fer re­spon­si­bil­i­ty for the na­tion­al alert state from the Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Coun­cil to the ODPM.

The sec­ond was to re­vise the na­tion­al alert state from five lev­els to four, in line with in­ter­na­tion­al best prac­tices.

While this re­view was un­der­way, the ODPM sought so­lu­tions for a mass no­ti­fi­ca­tion sys­tem and found the provider Ever­bridge.

How does the PANS work?

Ac­cord­ing to ODPM Op­er­a­tions Man­ag­er, Den­nis Mar­celle, when au­thor­i­ties de­tect, pre­dict, or are made aware of a haz­ardous event, “That in­for­ma­tion is fed through our net­work to the ODPM. Through our day-to-day op­er­a­tions, the ODPM will as­sess the sit­u­a­tion. Based on the per­ceived threat lev­el, we can gen­er­ate an alert through the sys­tem through mul­ti­ple plat­forms, which is then sent to the wider pub­lic.”

Mar­celle says the ODPM in­tends to use the sys­tem for the weath­er, flood­ing, hur­ri­canes, earth­quakes, as­so­ci­at­ed quake haz­ards, large fires, and sev­er­al oth­er threats.

He added that these alerts could be is­sued for any na­tion­al, crit­i­cal event. “It doesn’t re­al­ly have to be a haz­ard. In fact, there could be some­thing tak­ing place that we need to alert the pub­lic to.”

Where do you sign up?

There are three ways to sign up for these alerts.

First­ly, you can sign up through the ODPM’s web­site, where a reg­is­tra­tion link and in­struc­tion video will take you through the process. The sec­ond op­tion is through the Ever­bridge App, which is avail­able on the Google Play and Ap­ple App Store. The last op­tion is through pa­per-based forms avail­able via the ODPM.

PANS Im­por­tance

Ac­cord­ing to Mar­celle, it helps to know your risk. “That in­for­ma­tion is crit­i­cal to any event or emer­gency. It will help you re­duce your ex­po­sure lev­el.

He added, “Sec­ond­ly, we all want to pro­tect our fam­i­ly, our loved ones pro­tect­ing your­selves. Be­ing more in­formed helps you to do that.”

Last­ly, Mar­celle said the alerts can help you pro­tect your in­vest­ment. “If you know things are hap­pen­ing, you may need to evac­u­ate. You need to move your ve­hi­cle. This sys­tem al­lows us to reach the pop­u­la­tion with that mes­sage.”

—Kalain Ho­sein