Case Study: Mississippi Emergency Management Agency achieves faster, more reliable emergency alerts and coordination with BlackBerry AtHoc

How BlackBerry AtHoc Provides Mississippi Emergency Management Agency their Cornerstone for Critical Information Notifcations

The Mississippi Emergency Management Agency (MEMA) coordinates state and local response to hazards and needed a highly reliable, multi-channel mass notification system—critical given the presence of the Grand Gulf Nuclear Station. Their previous provider, Nixle, lacked a mobile app, SMS and IPAWS integration and could not meet MEMA’s requirements for speed, redundancy and broad reach, so the agency sought a more robust solution.

MEMA implemented BlackBerry AtHoc, leveraging IPAWS integration, geolocation targeting, mobile apps and 64 prebuilt templates, with BlackBerry support for deployment and training. The platform enabled faster, redundant multi-channel alerts, improved coordination across state and local agencies (150 MEMA staff and thousands of users statewide), streamlined drills and daily operations, and produced measurable gains in response speed and situational awareness during severe weather and other incidents.

Mississippi Emergency Management Agency

Thomas Brewer

GIS Technology Offcer