The 2007 hurricane season has been relatively mild so far. But it is still a busy period for Martha Rainville in her new position overseeing national public warnings and alerts at the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

She joined FEMA in April as deputy administrator of continuity programs. Rainville’s responsibilities include FEMA’s Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS). It will expand the nation’s longstanding emergency alert system. The goal is to fulfill an executive order that President Bush issued in June 2006 to build a comprehensive national warning system that transmits voice, video and text alerts to all media, including telephones, computers and cell phones.

Two weeks ago, Rainville visited Mobile, Ala., with Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff to kick off a Gulf Coast state demonstration of IPAWS that will run through the end of December. They urged the public to sign up for the voluntary optin portion of the system in which they will receive alerts directly on their cell phones and e-mail accounts.

“We have already signed up several thousand people in Mississippi,” Rainville said. “We are getting some strong feedback.”

In the pilot project, FEMA and Sandia National Laboratory will deploy a Web alert and relay network that offers collaboration tools and access to Web sites. The system includes an emergency telephone notification service with automated telephone calls delivering messages to all residents in affected geographic areas. Both are components of IPAWS.

Rainville, 49, is no stranger to the Hurricane Belt. She spent much of her childhood in Port Gibson, Miss., and received her bachelor’s degree from the University of Mississippi in 1979. She joined the Air Force, specializing in aircraft maintenance. After moving to Vermont in 1988, she rose through the ranks to become the nation’s first female State Adjutant General of the National Guard in 1997. She retired from the military after 27 years of service last year. In the 2006 elections, she was the Republican candidate for a Vermont congressional seat, losing to Democrat Peter Welch.

She recently spoke with Staff Writer Alice Lipowicz about IPAWS.

WT: You have responsibility for IPAWS and FEMA’s federal continuity- of-government and continuity- of-operations activities. How do those fit together?

Rainville: IPAWS is a pretty large part of the portfolio. It is one of the more public things we do, and it is a high priority for us.

WT: What are the lessons learned so far from the IPAWS pilot project in the states affected by hurricanes?

Rainville: The opt-in portion of IPAWS is voluntary; you must register in advance. The emergency telephone notification system pushes calls out to all phones. The technology can make 60,000 calls in 10 minutes. What we are finding is that there are some restrictions in the infrastructure — in the capacity of the telephone lines to handle all the calls. We are trying to find out what those constraints are. So far, we have not seen any throttling of calls or collapses in the system.

WT: What is FEMA’s plan for implementing IPAWS nationwide?

Rainville: After we finish the pilot project at the end of December, if the testing goes as planned, our goal is to offer the states a package of capabilities as well as vendors who can comply with the standards and protocols we are developing. The package will include the opt-in capabilities to send messages to cell phones and other devices; the emergency telephone notification [system]; and warning services for the deaf and hard of hearing, and in foreign languages. In the pilot phase, the governors are asking for Spanish and Vietnamese as second and third languages.

“We are talking to the states about their needs, and we plan to use DHS grants to supply a portion of the funding. It is premature to say what that will be.” — Martha Rainville, Federal Emergency Management Agency

FEMA, the [Federal Communications Commission] and [National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration] are developing different components. The system will use the Common Alerting Protocol and the Emergency Data Exchange Language, [both Extensible Markup Language formats].

We changed tactics for IPAWS. We refocused to provide enhanced capability for the 2007 hurricane season. The packaging of capabilities will be useful to the states.

WT: Will this be open-source or proprietary technology? Sandia has selected several subcontractors for the IPAWS pilot, including MyStateUSA, NuParadigm Foundation and Warning Systems Inc.

Rainville: We will have standards, and through Sandia Lab, we will be able to certify which vendors meet the standards. States can choose their own vendors.

WT: How much is IPAWS costing this year, and what is the total budget for IPAWS? Who will pay the bulk of the expense to implement it?

Rainville: We have a budget of $75 million through 2007 under the Stafford Act. There is $26.5 million in the fiscal 2008 budget for development and testing.

We are talking to the states about their needs, and we plan to use DHS grants to supply a portion of the funding. It is premature to say what that will be. This is optional for the states.

WT: How confident are you that FEMA and the states will successfully deploy the IPAWS capabilities?

Rainville: I have a lot of confidence in the capability and in the commitment that FEMA has to field and test the capability. It is the right thing to do and states need this.

Staff Writer Alice Lipowicz can be reached at alipowicz@1105govinfo.com.