Emir Olivares and Arturo Sanchez
Newspaper La Jornada
Friday December 30, 2022, p. eleven
Starting in 2023, the seismic alert system will be extended to Colima and the entire state of Mexico; In addition, it will extend its notices via mobile telephony, explained yesterday the national coordinator of Civil Protection, Laura Velázquez.
When participating in the morning conference of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the official explained that it is not planned to take this service to the entire national territory, since it is concentrated in areas of high seismic risk.
Currently, he stated, the system records events with an epicenter on the Pacific coast from Jalisco to Oaxaca and issues the alert in Mexico City, Puebla, Morelos, Michoacán, Jalisco, Guerrero and Oaxaca, as well as in the central part of the state. from Mexico.
By 2023, it will be extended to the entire federal entity as well as Colima. While it will be pending for the next six-year term, Velázquez said, to expand the system to Baja California Sur and Chiapas.
Sending messages
The project for this tool to work on citizens’ cell phones will consist of sending massive messages.
This proposal has been worked on since 2019 jointly with the government of Mexico City, the Secretary of Security and Citizen Protection and the National Digital Strategy Coordination of the Presidency. It is one of the most important projects for next year, we are going to continue with the approval of sounds and messages
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C5 speakers
Currently the alert is given through the C5’s speakers, by the AM and FM radio signal and by television. It has been relevant because it gives the population around 40 seconds to react and make a decision to help and protect life, although he clarified that the warning time is a function of the distance from the epicenter and the magnitude of the earthquake.
He recalled that the seismic alert system was launched in the country in 1991 thanks to the AC Seismic Recording and Instrumentation Center, and until 2022 it has captured more than 10,500 events, of which it has only been necessary to issue the alert in 171.
