Philly receives emergency info system

ARLINGTON, Va., Aug. 8 (UPI) -- The Philadelphia metro area has unveiled a new emergency communication system.

The nation's fifth-largest metro area unveiled a regional, interoperable, alert and information-sharing system. Emergency Management and Public Safety officials in the Southeastern Counter Terrorism Task Force announced Virginia based-Roam Secure has implemented its Roam Secure Alert Network and Roam Secure Emergency Information Exchange in the area.

SECTTF includes the City and County of Philadelphia and four surrounding counties.

Roam Secure's system is expected to enable routine and all-hazards communication among emergency managers, key government officials and 25,000 first responders across the region. Company officials say authorized senders can issue alerts, or the system can automatically pull, filter and deliver information from other RSAN systems around the region, country and third-party systems. The alerts include weather, traffic, crime, Amber alerts and others.

Roam Secure Emergency Information Exchange ties all the jurisdictions together while each jurisdiction has its own RSAN system to communicate during routine incidents.

"The greater Philadelphia region is a strategic area between Washington, D.C., and New York," Frank Punzo, deputy commissioner of communications for the city of Philadelphia, said in a statement. "We have nuclear facilities, major refineries, waterways, ports, roadways and other critical infrastructure. It is absolutely essential that organizations at the federal/state/county and municipal levels are coordinated with regard to first response. With RSAN as our messaging platform, and the interoperability provided by RSIX we have the capability to facilitate a large-scale response on a region-wide basis."