Nicole King - All Headline News Staff Writer
(AHN) - The government will soon use Web sites, personal computers and cell phones to send out warnings about national emergencies. Most likely the warnings will be about natural disasters and terrorist attacks.
Homeland Security expects to have the system working by the end of next year. The government has been testing the system in the Washington, D.C., area since October 2004.
The new system will update the emergency alerts planned during the Cold War. President Harry Truman created the nation's first alert system in 1951, which required radio stations to broadcast only on certain frequencies during emergencies.
Only the president can order a national emergency alert.