State OEM unveils IPAWS satellite alert receivers for tribal communities
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Summary
Nevada OEM said it has an IPAWS grant to deploy satellite-based alert receivers to designated tribal locations, providing resilient emergency notifications that operate during cellular or broadband outages and covering three years of equipment and service.
The Nevada Office of Emergency Management announced an IPAWS grant to deploy satellite-based alert receivers at designated tribal locations, aiming to provide a resilient, independent pathway for emergency alerts.
Aaron Thacker, speaking for the agency, said the satellite receivers "will provide a resilient independent pathway for emergency alerts" that "support all major alert types through IPAWS for emergency notifications, such as evacuations and missing and endangered persons notifications," and remain operational during cellular outages, power failures and broadband disruptions. He asked tribal partners to indicate interest so the state can move forward with deployments.
Thacker said the grant covers acquisition and service for three years. A tribal representative, using the meeting chat, asked for the timeline for feedback; Thacker said the sooner the tribes respond the better and that staff discussed the project on a recent tribal emergency management call.
The OEM framed the project as designed to provide redundancy where local infrastructure may fail, and asked tribes to contact the agency to start participation discussions. The presentation closed with no formal action taken by the council.
The next step identified by OEM staff is tribal outreach and partner selection; funding and technical details beyond the three-year service term were not specified during the meeting.