It's an interesting exercise to spend a day or two trying to be aware of what would be the most likely dangers where you are at the moment if you were caught in a good sizes quake right then.
I think that most will find that there are many times each day where a few seconds warning would make a difference. Some common situations:
• Carrying a heavy item that would hurt you if you dropped it on your foot, or fell down and it landed on you.
• Sitting near a shelf with something heavy on it (surround speaker, for example).
• Many things in the kitchen: carrying hot liquid; hot liquid on the stove; using a knife.
• Using power tools: soldering; drilling; sawing.
• Juggling torches.
Just a couple seconds warning can give you time to put down a heavy object, move from where your speaker will fall on you or prepare to deflect it, get out of the way of potential spills in the kitchen, put down the knife, stop your power tools, and stop juggling.
I attended a talk by one of the developers of this system, and since earthquake warnings are so short (tens of seconds), it's unlikely that traditional alert mechanisms can be delivered to the general public. As such, the primary consumers of the device will be places like nuclear power plants and major industrial operators who are willing to install special alarms.
The other example he gave was giving doctors performing surgery time to step away from the patient, so that they dont turn things into a real life game of surgeon simulator, an example I personally find to be extremely horrifying and nightmare inducing.
Cell phone app. Setup something like the reverse-911 system, or even just a downloadable app that can wake your phone from sleep and use the speakers to alert its carrier that an earthquake is on the way.
How about the delay? The message is not delivered instantly. Plus, such a system would be required to be already scaled up, and stay in that state always, to support sending messages to millions of "subscribers", which would only add additional delay.
> CMAS will allow federal agencies to accept and aggregate alerts from the President of the United States, the National Weather Service (NWS) and emergency operations centers, and send the alerts to participating wireless providers who will distribute the alerts to their customers with compatible devices via Cell Broadcast, a technology similar to SMS text messages that simultaneously delivers messages to all phones using a cell tower instead of individual recipients.[3][4]
No. This would almost assuredly be sent as a level 2 extreme alert. The only alert that can bypass the settings is an alert directly from the president.
If earthquake alerts are their own category, I probably won't. However, if they're lumped in with much more common events (thunderstorm! non-custodial parent spending time with child!) that I don't care to hear, then I will.
Android does as well. (Source, worked in an Android development company, those alerts are really annoying when you are in the same room as a dozen test devices).
"It is mandatory for 3G cellular phones that were put on the market after 2007 to receive this service, though overseas manufacturers (Nokia, Apple, HTC, LG, Samsung, etc.) are not supported"
So, is it mandatory, or only for phones made in Japan?
I completely agree! A few seconds can certainly save one’s life. The main issue is how to broadcast this warning without suffering from any delay or latency...
For example, elevators in areas prone to earthquakes have sensors installed that can detect the movement of the building [1]. If it sways too far it will automatically move the elevator (up or down) to get the car as far as possible from the heavy heavy counterweight - as there is the possibility that it could break free and smush the car.
I think that most will find that there are many times each day where a few seconds warning would make a difference. Some common situations:
• Carrying a heavy item that would hurt you if you dropped it on your foot, or fell down and it landed on you.
• Sitting near a shelf with something heavy on it (surround speaker, for example).
• Many things in the kitchen: carrying hot liquid; hot liquid on the stove; using a knife.
• Using power tools: soldering; drilling; sawing.
• Juggling torches.
Just a couple seconds warning can give you time to put down a heavy object, move from where your speaker will fall on you or prepare to deflect it, get out of the way of potential spills in the kitchen, put down the knife, stop your power tools, and stop juggling.