The Integrated Public Alert and Warning System was established under Executive Order 13407. IPAWS provides the capability to notify the public of impending natural and human-made disasters, emergency and public safety information. In a national emergency, the President may use IPAWS to communicate to the public as well. IPAWS delivers timely, geographically-targeted messages during emergencies to save lives and protect property through multiple communication pathways such as, the Emergency Alert System, Wireless Emergency Alerts, NOAA Weather Radio and other internet connected devices and services.
The IPAWS Modernization Act of 2015 calls for:
- Upgrading IPAWS to ensure the President can communicate to the public under all conditions.
- Establishing a subcommittee to the National Advisory Council composed of IPAWS stakeholders to expand collaboration and recommend improvements to the system.
- FEMA to submit annual performance reports.
The Act includes 19 additional system and implementation requirements, which FEMA is evaluating and estimating the resources necessary to fulfill “to the extent feasible.”
IPAWS' Mission and Initiatives
IPAWS Mission
IPAWS is guided by its mission to provide integrated services and capabilities to federal, state, territorial, tribal and local authorities that enable them to effectively alert and warn their respective communities via multiple communications methods.
The IPAWS Office is also guided by FEMA’s mission of helping people before, during, and after disasters. Furthermore, IPAWS advances the 2022–2026 FEMA Strategic Plan and the agency’s strategic imperatives by building a culture of preparedness, readying the nation for catastrophic disasters and reducing the complexity of FEMA.
IPAWS Vision
To provide trusted timely alert and warning to people affected by threats to public safety in the preservation of life and property.
IPAWS Goals
- Expand the Breadth and Equity of IPAWS Alerting Coverage
- Improve Stakeholders’ Abilities to Send Effective Alerts
- Improve and Reinforce the Alert and Warning Ecosystem
- Improve Internal Efficiency and Resource Management
These goals aim to make alerting available to more people and broader demographics, improve the effectiveness of alerts, improve the quality and sustainability of the national alerting ecosystem, and improve the internal operations of the IPAWS Office to optimize service delivery and long-term capability development.
Federal, State, Local, Tribal and Territorial Partners
Federal Governance Partners are federal authorities responsible for national public alerts and warnings policies and regulations. They represent a large and unique segment of the emergency management community and the public. State, local, tribal and territorial public safety officials are designated within their level of government as an alerting authority responsible for communicating emergency alerts and warnings to the public.
FEMA supports our Tribal Government Partners to enable them to alert and warn their communities during emergencies to save lives and protect property. To enhance emergency preparedness of tribes, the agency:
- Supports nation‐to‐nation tribal relationships and recognizes the unique cross jurisdictional challenges they face with emergency management and public alerting.
- Collaborates with tribal governments to develop education and training curricula, guidance and technical support. Provides supplemental federal grant guidance for eligible public alert and warning activity expenses through the Tribal Homeland Security Grant Program.
- Works with FEMA’s Emergency Management Institute to deliver training to tribal emergency managers that explains IPAWS capabilities and benefits.
Legislative Government Partners are the Congressional committees that oversee IPAWS. FEMA submits periodic reports and delivers briefings with IPAWS implementation updates to the committees. FEMA conducted an interactive end-to-end IPAWS concept of operations demonstration for members of Congress and their staff at the United States Capitol Visitors Center.