SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, 15th April. (EUROPA PRESS) –
Heading to the island of La Palma this Wednesday, Virginia Barcones, the Head of Civil Protection and Emergencies at the Ministry of the Interior, will be present at the trial of the mass warning system for the population during emergencies, Es-Alert.
This confirmation comes from Manuel Miranda, the Minister of Territorial Policy and the leader of emergencies in the archipelago, who expressed gratitude towards the Ministry of the Interior for addressing the technical issues identified during the trial conducted in Fuerteventura back in February.
A portion of Fuerteventura’s population did not receive the notification during the drill due to an issue with the national Civil Protection alert system’s software and its compatibility with the Movistar operator. Consequently, the trial was postponed, and it is now being resumed in the archipelago.
As a result of these incidents, discussions between the Canary Islands Government and the Spanish Government led to the decision for the Head of Civil Protection and Emergencies at the Ministry of the Interior to visit La Palma and monitor the trial closely alongside advisor Manuel Miranda.
The trial is being organised by the regional General Directorate of Emergencies, 112 Canarias, the State’s General Directorate of Civil Protection, in collaboration with the Cabildo of La Palma and all the municipalities on the island.
The message will be transmitted from the Coordinating Centre for Emergencies and Security (CECOES) 1-1-2 on La Palma between 10:00 and 12:00, covering the entire island. People can receive the message upon sending or upon entering their telecom provider’s coverage area if they are outside it. Phones turned off or in airplane mode will not receive the message. Furthermore, passengers on boats near the coast of the island will also receive the message.
Once accepted, the message will disappear from the mobile screen. The received message will contain a survey crucial to determining the trial’s effectiveness, reach, and providing insights for enhancing the tool’s functionality.
This trial is part of the Canary Islands Government’s test schedule, which has previously examined the system’s functionality in Fuerteventura, El Hierro, and urban areas in Garachico (Tenerife) and Valleseco (Gran Canaria).
The National Civil Protection System’s new tool was deployed during last year’s forest fires in La Palma and Tenerife. However, to ensure optimal performance, periodic trials are conducted across the archipelago to familiarise the population with the system.
Es-Alert enables issuing alerts for disasters or emergencies like fires, floods, volcanic eruptions, or adverse weather conditions, without requiring any app installation or registration, thereby providing affected citizens with guidance for their safety.
This system complements conventional warning channels such as evacuation notices, media broadcasts, social media, or public address systems. Full details on the ES-Alert system are available on the 112 website.
