BRAINTREE, Mass., July 20, 2011 — ELERTS, creators of an industry-first mobile platform for emergency notification, today announced the availability of its two-way mobile communication app that delivers critical information gathered from official sources and eyewitness reports. Available immediately in the iPhone/iPad App Store  and via the Android Market, the ELERTS app provides the industry’s only crowdsourced smartphone platform for emergency alerting and management.

With hurricane season underway and NOAA predicting “above-normal” activity, along with the recent range of catastrophic tornados, floods and wildfires – existing emergency communications systems are not taking advantage of today’s mobile technology. One-way SMS text and email warnings are not as effective as two-way, audio-visual content that can be easily captured and transmitted with smartphones.

According to Neilsen, 55% of new mobile phones sold in the US are smartphones. Analysts project the number of global smartphone users will approach 2 billion by 2015.  ELERTS has developed a mobile emergency notification system that recognizes and leverages this dramatic technology shift.  With the ELERTS app on their mobile phones, people are empowered to become Citizen Responders in a crisis.

The US federal government’s  Personal Localized Alerting Network (PLAN), or CMAS, is a mobile notification system coming in 2012 which is restricted to short, one-way text messages. The release of the ELERTS two-way mobile app allows the timely sharing of information, which can save lives. ELERTS provides incident intelligence to first responders armed with a vastly more effective communications platform.

Fast Facts

•              Personalized Protection: ELERTS offers a personal safety tool for users, with the ability to:

–              Choose alert feeds by type (earthquake, fire, flood, power outage, vehicle accidents, suspicious activity, and more) and location (any city/town, college or university)
–              Contribute eyewitness reports with photos, descriptions and GPS location
–              Utilize ELERTS “Skywriter” capability to message friends and family with your location and safety status during a crisis.

•              Authoritative Sources: ELERTS draws its emergency intelligence from a growing portfolio of local and federal organizations including:

–              Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)
–              National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
–              US Geological Survey (USGS)
–              Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
–              Red Cross
–              Ready.gov
–              Alaska and Pacific Tsunami Centers

•              Comprehensive Command and Control: In addition to providing notification feeds, ELERTS facilitates two-way emergency communications with:

–              ELERTS 1R’s -1st Reviewers – a volunteer network of public safety and first responder experts who review and rank crowdsourced reports for accuracy and severity – providing filtering and an additional level of context
–              Social network propagation – ELERTS can share major reports via Twitter and Facebook among a national network of first responders/organizations
–              ELERTS Management Console – available in Q3, is the dashboard-like command center provides public safety organizations with an unprecedented ability to gather, analyze and distribute emergency information before, during and after an emergency event.

Quotes

Chris Russo, Career First Responder, Founder and Executive Vice President, ELERTS

“In an emergency, people grab two things – their kids and their cellphone. What we’re providing here is a way to help, by letting people use new tools to do just what they already do instinctually, seek helpful information during a crisis.  We are allowing people to help people by sharing information about an emergency.  And in my experience, in times of crisis, people will do what they can to help each other out.

Ed English, Chief Executive Officer, ELERTS

“Mobile emergency communications is a market that seems frozen in time – legacy solutions rely on 25 year old SMS text messaging and email for notifications, ignoring the fact that smartphones with cameras, GPS and high resolution screens are widely in use and their adoption is growing rapidly.  When it comes to public safety, we as a society owe it to ourselves to make good use of the best technology available, i.e. smartphones.  Landlines are being disconnected at a rapid rate and being replaced by mobile phones. At ELERTS we are providing solutions that leverage the modern technology in people’s hands.   Let people connect, share and help, in the way they’re most comfortable and by using tools they already have, and they’ll do so readily.”

About ELERTS

People will help people — if they have the right tools. ELERTS is creating better emergency response systems by embracing high-speed multimedia mobile networks, smartphone technology and social media. Traditional ER systems push out static messages through lowest common denominator methods, often SMS. ELERTS transcends legacy approaches by empowering citizens with smartphones and tablets to share verified, real-time eyewitness emergency or disaster reports by using crowdsourcing, paired with official emergency data feeds. Privately funded and headquartered in Braintree, Massachusetts, the ELERTS leadership team comprises hands-on first responders, senior-level emergency management professionals and successful high technology entrepreneurs. Visit ELERTS at www.elerts.com.