The catastrophe caused by the cold dropnow called DANAwhich has been traveling along the peninsular Mediterranean coast for almost a week, has highlighted the effectiveness of the system alerts of the General Directorate of Civil Protection. The warning reached the Valencians when in many areas torrential rains and flooding had already been a reality for hours, which has called into question not its effectiveness but yes its management. The result, 221 deaths officially accounted for so far and a number of missing people around 1,900according to reports of missing persons collected by the emergency service 112. This number, provisional and unofficial, appeared in a minute of the meeting of the Cecopi -Integrated Operational Coordination Center- of Valencia revealed by eldiario.es last Friday.
Beyond the political responsibilities for the disastrous management of information on meteorological danger and the protection of citizens, both before and after the floods, the truth is that whether or not ES-Alert alerts are received on mobile too depends on device characteristics. Like any service, there are minimum technical requirements that a mobile must meet in order to receive them and that they leave out users with old mobile phones.
As explained by Civil Protection and Emergencies on its website, the implementation of the ES-Alert system is a consequence of the Directive 2018/1972of the European Parliament and of the Council. This established that, as of June 21, 2022, all member countries must have mobile phone-based alert systems. Unfortunately, presciently, Its activation in Spain arrived late compared to that date. In autumn 2022 it was tested in all communities in a phased manner and in February 2023 it was activated.
What does an Android mobile need to receive ES-Alert alerts?
The phone must have at least coverage 4G to be able to receive them and a certain version of the operating system, whether Android or iOS for Apple iPhones.
A terminal with Android 8 -released in 2017- or an earlier version you will not be able to receive them. Now, having a later version does not guarantee correct receipt of the alert. According to Civil Protection, terminals with Android 9 -2018- and 10 -2019- will receive the alerts, but some parameters They will not be correctly configured. For example, the text ‘Presidential Alert’ is displayed instead of ‘Civil Protection Alert’, which may lead to confusion about the nature of the notice. From Android 11 -2020- any Android mobile you will receive them correctly.
Which iPhone phones can receive ES-Alert alerts
iPhones compatible with ES-Alert are those that have version 15.6 of the iOS operating system or later. This is, from the iPhone 6s, released in 2016, onwards as long as they have updated iOS.