Emergency Notification System from AtHoc Selected by Hawaii State Civil Defense

In May of 2007, AtHoc - http://www.athoc.com - announced he Hawaii State Civil Defense (HISCD) has licensed AtHoc IWSAlerts™ software to build a comprehensive, network-centric emergency notification system (ENS) to support emergency response state wide. HISCD is actively leveraging IP-based, network-centric technology to provide emergency notification for first responders, citizens and the special-needs community. The system has already been installed in the HISCD headquarters at the Birkhimer Emergency Operating Center in Diamond Head Crater, Oahu, and is intended to provide support to HISCD personnel, to the emergency preparedness community and to the Hawaii special needs community on a pilot basis.

Hawaii State Civil Defense, Hawaii’s mass notification and emergency management agency, is responsible for preventing, protecting and assisting its islands and citizens during emergencies and disasters. The emergency notification system set in place by AtHoc allows HISCD to use its existing network to reach personnel within HISCD and partner organizations through multiple redundant channels of communications - including SMS text-messaging to mobile phones, desktop alerts over IP-networks, telephony, TTY/TDD devices and pagers. The system can be triggered either by HISCD emergency managers or automatically by monitoring events communicated from external agencies (i.e. National Weather Service). IWSAlerts also enable HISCD to trigger alerts to the public over the broadcast Emergency Alert System (EAS) using the same Web-enabled integrated system, which improves response time and bolsters public safety.

“It’s exciting to be working with HISCD and numerous other organizations across the state to help build this very important emergency notification infrastructure," commented Guy Miasnik, president and CEO of AtHoc.

HISCD decided to create a far-reaching alerting capability that contacts various communities, including HISCD personnel, Hawaii’s emergency preparedness community, special needs citizens, emergency managers for larger businesses and corporations, and the general public via the media and EAS.