(Indianapolis - AP) Indiana lawmakers are considering legislation that would allow counties to use emergency telephone systems to warn residents of approaching severe weather. Such a system would use "reverse 911" technology to ring the telephones in homes where a storm was headed. The bill was prompted by a November tornado that ripped through southwestern Indiana in the middle of the night, killing 24 people. Many of the victims were asleep and never heard the wailing of warning sirens.
Eric Friedebach /Jaywalking in Dallas/
[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Municipal authorities here in Independence have tried something similar but only under a very limited test, using a 'phone tree' sort of thing, rather than a formal 'reverse-911'. We had a situation here a couple years ago where a small child was kidnapped from a school playground after school let out one day. The playground attendant saw it happen and the first order of business was to notify police of course. It turns out the 'kidnapper' was an older female who, while she and the child knew each other, she was _not_ authorized to take her away from the school. Police gave immediate chase, and caught the woman when she wrecked her car while attempting to get around a railroad crossing on Oak Street. The child was unhurt; the woman's car was pretty well wrecked and she was hurt enough to require hospitalization. In the meantime, the school's 'phone tree' was busy; one or two employees of the school immediatly telephoned 'responsible parents' from the local PTA organization; each of those responsible parents began notifying others on their lists, etc.Within 30-45 minutes, I think almost everyone in town knew something was going on. Police had the woman in custody and under arrest in about the same time; I understand the way it all ended was the woman was found mentally incompetent to stand trial. And I notice that many other community organizations and churches here in town have the same kind of 'phone tree'. If the matter is important enough, police will telephone one or two people from that group or organization, within an hour more or less everyone in town will know about it.
I have often thought however that if terrorists or other malcontents decided to do a number on the USA, the best time to explode a bomb would be at 1 - 2:00 AM Pacific Time when eighty or ninety percent of all Americans would be asleep. I mean, just imagine you went to bed some night as usual, midnight or so, and never woke up again, because you died during the night either because of a tornado, a bomb from a terrorist, or whatever. You do NOT announce your terrorist activity for mid afternoon or early evening, that would give too many folks the chance to run for cover, try and evacuate, whatever. PAT]