Pat Shingleton for Monday, June 11, 2012

Years ago, the position of an approaching tropical storm was mostly a guess, at best. I remember securing a “picture” of a satellite image of the storm from the National Weather Service in Baton Rouge. This picture, or “snap-shot,” was dated by many hours but was the only visual to showcase this image from outer space satellites. Our directive was to provide mere coordinates of the storm’s position, allowing viewers to plot them on a paper chart. Today, the public-alert system is advanced far beyond your traditional radio and television reports to mobile networks.

The director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Craig Fugate, suggests households with fixed-line phones or land lines should consider either temporary or permanent cellphones to receive instantaneous emergency text messages. Fastcast: Sticky.