Homeland Security borrows Amber Alert missing-kid technology

Everybody's favorite eye that never sleeps, the Department of Homeland Security, has been busy adapting the
Amber Alert kidnapping notification technology to higher purpose: a national alert-notification web portal accessible by cellphones, handhelds, or via email. The department is acting on a mandate to include the technology in the warning system as required by the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act signed into law in December by President Bush. The pilot program in the D.C. metro area sees public TV broadcasters, cellphone operators and ISPs handing over extra digital spectrum to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for rolling out the alerts. The system is intended to be adapted for use by local and state officials to warn the public about incidents such as terrorist attacks, traffic incidents, or natural disasters "such as the tsunami that hit Asia at the end of last year." Now, given the difficulty of predicting a natural disaster such as a tsunami or earthquake, exactly how effective is the warning system going to be in those cases? And how much taxpayer money will go into being able to receive an SMS that says "Look out — tsunami!"?