Mexico City To Send Social Networking Earthquake Alerts

MEXICO CITY — The government of quake-prone Mexico City is planning to send earthquake alerts by text message and through social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter.

Mayor Marcelo Ebrard says he hopes to have the system working by Sept. 19, the anniversary of the 8.1-magnitude earthquake in 1985 that killed as many as 10,000 people.

Mexico City currently has an early warning system that uses sirens to alert city residents about quakes that occur hundreds of miles away on Pacific coast fault lines. Some people complain the alarms in their neighborhoods can't be heard or don't go off.

Ebrard said Friday that his administration is talking to numerous service providers to put the new alert system in place.

Comments

[Jim Anderson]

09:41 AM on 05/07/2011

If your PC monitor is jumping up and down....good sign it's an earthquake.

[Ari Sedona]

08:48 AM on 05/07/2011

I would think ground shaking would be alert enough.