With students returning to class this week, school administrators and safety personnel return to their responsibility of keeping them safe during any emergency situation. Fortunately, most schools are ready by having emergency preparedness plans in place that include some method of emergency mass communication.

As the communities in Texas and Louisiana continue their long road to recovery after the devastation left behind by Hurricane Harvey, Hurricane Irma continues her approach and is already impacting the Caribbean.

Alertus is making preparations for ASIS 2017 to exhibit our emergency notification solutions to the more than 22,000 security and IT management professionals from various industries expected to attend. Alertus will be located at Booth 2246.

A recent article in “Recode,” a tech news publication, details a current debate between the Federal Communications Commission and wireless carriers regarding emergency alerts that first responders around the country are able to send to smartphones.

With most people carrying smart phones and tablets with them at all times, many organizations incorporated these devices into their emergency communications efforts as a means to reach people in the event of a crisis. Alertus’ mobile phone apps offers any organization enhanced personal notification between authorized dispatchers and end users.

In 2015, the state of Texas passed “Kari’s Law” mandating that businesses with multiple line telephone systems (MLTS) allow callers to dial 911 directly, instead of having to include an additional number or code. On many MLTS systems (often found in hotels and offices) callers have to dial an additional number, often “9,” to get an outside line to make a standard phone call, so a 911 call would require the caller to dial “9-911.”