The National Office of Disaster Services (NODS) is reporting an increase in the number of individuals who are now utilizing the Common Alerting Protocol or CAP, CAP App.

The APP is a digital format for exchanging emergency alerts, allowing a consistent alert message to be disseminated simultaneously over multiple communications pathways.

A single emergency alert can trigger a variety of public warning systems, increasing the likelihood that people receive the alert through one or more communication pathways.

Director of NODS Sherrod James said there have been vast improvements over the years in terms of the number of downloads.

“We have been utilizing the App as much as we can when we host drills and so and other national exercises and community-based exercises, to get people to become acquaint with the type of messaging and use it as an official source”, James said.

“There is a lot of information out there but you have to make sure you get it from the correct source. We have been seeing a level of improvement over time, but we continue to encourage persons to download and to work with the national system,” he added.

In addition to the app, most of the radio stations in Antigua and Barbuda are now a part of CAP CAP and disaster officials will be able to interrupt regular programming to carry out specific emergency alerts.

The stations agreed in 2022 to broadcast emergency alerts that will notify residents of pending events like a tsunami, flooding, tropical warning, hurricane warning, riot, or civil unrest among others.

The APP is also in places within other Organisations of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) and Barbados.