ST PAUL, Minn. — There will soon be another reason for your mobile phone to start buzzing.
A new agreement between the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) will allow wireless emergency alerts to be sent regarding situations on state roads that could impact public safety.
The wireless emergency alerts (WEAs) use the same system that shares other critical notifications – like Amber Alerts – except these incidents will involve Minnesota roads. Alerts will be sent only when highway closures of more than four hours are expected due to weather (snow, ice, flooding) or major crashes or incidents.
MnDOT alerts will be sent for closures on state highways and interstates that the agency controls.
“Road closures can occur suddenly, especially in cases of severe weather or major crashes on the highway system," explained MnDOT Commission Nancy Daugenberger in a released statement. "With WEA messages, MnDOT will be able to send immediate mobile alerts to people in the vicinity of a highway closure or detour – helping minimize motorists on roadways during winter conditions and aiding law enforcement and emergency personnel in responding to incidents quickly.”
Alerts from MnDOT will typically include a link to 511mn.org for more information and a simple description of the closure or incident. For example:
“EMERGENCY ALERT – The I-90 corridor is closed from the South Dakota border to Albert Lea due to blizzard conditions. Go to www.511mn.org for more information and updates.”
MnDOT says WEAs provide the ability to send alerts directly to mobile devices without the user needing to download an app or subscribe to a service. They will target motorists within a one-mile band of the impacted highway or interstate, beginning 10 miles ahead of the closure location.
Brian Kary, the Transportation System Management and Operations Director for MNDOT, said the alerts will be used sparingly. He also said MNDOT does not plan to use them in the metro area, but rather in rural sections of the state where electronic message boards and on and off-ramps are much less frequent.
"Especially those areas that have a lot of blizzard conditions, to warn people so they don't get out on the road and get stranded out there," Kary said. "We don't want this to become a nuisance. We've set pretty conservative guidelines on when we'll use it. It's hard to say exactly how frequently but we're probably looking at the average person might get only one, two, three of these a year, depending on where you live."
State departments of transportation in Pennsylvania, Georgia and Texas have successfully used WEAs for major road closure alerts, and many local county sheriff’s offices in Minnesota have authority to use the system as well.
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