NCJ Number
138420
Date Published
1984
Length
13 pages
Annotation
The Federal Emergency Management Agency published this Civil Preparedness Guide (CPG) to help State and local emergency management officials in their communications and warning systems engineering.
Abstract
A dedicated, reliable, and survivable emergency communications and warning system is an essential prerequisite for an effective direction and control emergency response system. The nine key characteristics of a warning system to support emergency management in peacetime or wartime include connectivity, survivability, capacity, transportability, security, modes, flexibility, interoperability, and responsiveness. The requirements for the effective operation and maintenance of an emergency communications system include: user friendly equipment, minimum essential number of personnel, minimum training standards, appropriate mean-time-between-failures, appropriate mean-time-to-repair, modular replacement for repair, appropriate equipment and component redundancy/back- up, appropriate test equipment and operational monitoring equipment or devices, and appropriate operations and maintenance documentation. This guidance also discusses considerations in engineering the new system, interfacing dissimilar systems, using existing resources, system design factors, and sirens.