News

Digital billboards to warn of emergencies in Des Moines

Clear Channel-Des Moines in Des Moines, Iowa, and the Polk County (Iowa) Emergency Management Agency recently partnered to enable the Polk County EMA to leverage digital signage and digital out-of-home media to communicate safety and disaster preparedness information to protect citizens and visitors during emergencies.

August 5, 2014

Clear Channel-Des Moines in Des Moines, Iowa, and the Polk County (Iowa) Emergency Management Agency recently partnered to enable the Polk County EMA to leverage digital signage and digital out-of-home media to communicate safety and disaster preparedness information to protect citizens and visitors during emergencies.

According to an announcement from CCO-Des Moines parent company Clear Channel Outdoor, when the National Weather Service alerts Polk County EMA to imminent severe weather, including tornadoes, flash floods or storms with 70-plus mile per hour winds, the company's 29 digital billboards will broadcast those alerts within seconds. As a multiplatform media company, Clear Channel also will support community safety by using the billboard creative to ask citizens to tune in to Clear Channel Radio station 1040-AM WHO for more emergency updates and preparedness information, the company said.

Polk County EMA safety experts enlisted Clear Channel's support to broadcast real-time emergency updates and safety information to people while they are out and about to help save lives. With its digital billboards reaching nearly 90 percent of adults weekly across Polk County, CCO-Des Moines said it can serve as one of the most powerful broadcast mediums available to support the County's efforts.

Polk County EMA now joins a growing number of state and local emergency agencies across the U.S., including Boston, Florida, Maryland and Minneapolis/St. Paul that have tapped into Clear Channel's digital outdoor media to help communicate time sensitive safety messages.

In every market across its U.S. footprint, Clear Channel Outdoor is supporting local, state and federal agencies with out-of-home public safety campaigns, the company said. In addition to local safety agencies such as Polk County EMA, this includes the FBI, U.S. Marshals and AMBER Alerts for missing children. Clear Channel Outdoor's digital media alert system, like the one Polk Co. will leverage, was used by the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency in a multistaged response to the 2013 Boston Marathon Bombing.

"I thank Clear Channel Outdoor for partnering with Polk County Emergency Management Agency on this important initiative that I am sure will save lives," Polk County EMA Executive Director A.J. Mumm said in the announcement. "We want to have as many tools as possible to reach out to our residents during emergencies. Digital out-of-home media is an important new broadcast medium and an effective way to notify residents who may be tuned out from other media and not receiving vital emergency messages."