September Newsletter

AEN Streams LIVE Briefings During Fay, Gustav, Hanna and Ike to the Public

Florida emergency managers are expressing enthusiastic support for America's Emergency Network and deep appreciation of the public service delivered by AEN during Tropical Storm Fay's assault on the state and the threats from Gustav, Hanna and Ike.

	Florida Director of Emergency Management Craig Fugate and Gov. Charlie Crist speak to Floridians in a hurricane preparation news conference streamed live by AEN

"We love the service," said Jayson Southworth, Putnam County's emergency management senior planner. "I can't say enough about it. It's a very well designed, very compact system that is easy to use. It is so far advanced over what we had before."

Said Chuck Lanza, Broward County's emergency management director: "We used AEN during all of our Tropical Storm Fay news conferences. Feedback was very positive, especially relating to access via the Internet at several local sites."

The comments came in response to America's Emergency Network's successful streaming of real-time news briefings from numerous state and local operations centers. AEN opened its still-in-development system in urgent response to Fay's disastrous course through Florida – and opened it again as Gustav, Hanna and Ike approached the state.

For the first time, Floridians and others had direct, easy and full access to news updates and to preparedness and recovery advisories from Florida's governor and other state officials. Many Floridians also had complete access to crucial updates from local emergency management officials.

AEN transmitted live news conferences and briefings from Florida's Division of Emergency Management in Tallahassee, from the Village of Islamorada and from operations centers in Broward, Brevard, Duval, Miami-Dade and Putnam counties.

Some of Florida's largest newspapers, including The Miami Herald, The South Florida SunSentinel, the Florida Times-Union in Jacksonville and the News-Press in Fort Myers provided convenient, free public access to the streams over their websites.

"AEN gives us a direct link to our residents and to other individuals around the state who need to be informed," Southworth said.

He and Lanza also noted the two-way nature of the service. For the first time, they said, they and other local emergency managers were able to watch state briefings in their entirety.

"I had to opportunity to watch several state of Florida emergency management briefings via AEN," Lanza said. "The real-time nature and the ease of access through the Internet made is an invaluable tool during the threats we faced."

Craig Fugate, director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management, praised AEN's public- service capabilities.

"This provides us with a whole different avenue to get the information out to the public," Fugate said. "The networks might cover the governor, but not the entire briefing. This gives us an opportunity to get the whole briefing out to the public. That's a significant advantage we never had before."

Bryan Norcross, AEN's president and chief executive officer, said the Internet and satellite-based system remains in beta test mode as it is being deployed throughout Florida, and soon the nation, but it was opened as a public service as the hurricane season heated up.

"Emergency managers, the media and the general public now have seen, first hand and dramatically, the importance of AEN's communications system, the void it fills and the service it provides," Norcross said.

"Though we will remain in test mode through the hurricane season, we are growing rapidly and we stand ready to assist the emergency management community – and the people served by it in any way we can," Norcross said.

Farnham Joins AEN as Vice President of Sales

Janis J. Farnham, a veteran sales and marketing manager, has joined America's Emergency Network as Vice President of Sales.

In that position, she assumes responsibility for marketing AEN's unique Internet- and satellite-based emergency management communication system to media clients and other entities.

Most recently a co-founder and partner of her own marketing firm, Farnham served for more than a decade as the senior sales executive for Weather Services International Corp., a leading provider of weather-driven business solutions for the media, airlines, utilities and other customers.

"Our rapid growth opens up many revenue-generating opportunities," said Bryan Norcross, AEN's president and chief executive officer. "We are extremely fortunate to have attracted someone with the experience and savvy that Janis brings to America's Emergency Network."

AEN Newsletter

This newsletter is produced by American's Emergency Network, the nation's first comprehensive emergency alerting and communications system. It is published monthly, along with occasional special editions, to report important developments at AEN and within the field of emergency communications.

America's Emergency Network:

Chairman of the Board:
Robert Adams

President & Chief Executive Officer: Bryan Norcross

Chief Technology Officer:
Chris Bennett

Senior Executive Vice President of Governmental Relations:
Max Mayfield

Senior Executive Vice President of Marketing: R. Matthew Straeb

Vice President of Sales:
Janis Farnham

AEN Newsletter:

Design: Chris Bennett
Production: Matt Sampson
Editor: Martin Merzer

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Investor Relations

America's Emergency Network, Inc. (AEN) is a wholly owned subsidiary of Brampton Crest International, Inc. (OTCBB: BRCI)

AEN Joins Ready Communities Partnership

America's Emergency Network is honored to be a member of the Committee of 100, an important element of the Ready Communities Partnership.

The partnership serves as a public-private test bed to identify and demonstrate technological and other innovations that can help reinforce local efforts to respond to large-scale crises during the critical first 72 hours.

The Committee of 100 plans and supports the partnership's annual National Congress for Secure Communities, scheduled for December 16-17 in Washington, D.C.

"This is an important component of the nation's emergency readiness plan and we are proud to be a part of it," said Bryan Norcross, AEN's president and chief executive officer.

More information: www.nationalcongress.org

College Campuses Rush to Upgrade Alert Systems

Most of the nation's universities and colleges plan to upgrade their emergency notification systems or deploy new alert systems, according to a recent survey.

Campus Safety magazine reports that 68 percent of responding campuses plan to improve their emergency alert systems by the end of 2009. This comes in the wake of the April 2007 massacre at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Va., and amid an enhanced awareness of the importance of effective emergency notification systems on campuses and in similar venues.

According to the survey:

• Many college and university administrators plan to install more than one system, with 57 percent of the responding campuses deploying text messaging systems, 39 percent using loudspeakers and 27 percent building digital display signs.
• Seventy-two percent of the campuses reported that tragedies at Virginia Tech and on other campuses account, at least in part, for the deployment of new notification systems, and 61 percent said mass notification systems are now part of their long-term safety and security strategies.
• Convincing students and staff to sign up for text notifications remains a significant challenge, with only 33 percent of students and 38 percent of the staff currently signed up.
• Campuses most often use email to entice students and others to enroll in the system, though orientation events and web sites also are employed.

In a related development, Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich last month signed a law that requires colleges and universities across the state to implement emergency response plans.

Most schools already have some sort of response plan, but the new law should improve and standardize those measures, Patti Thompson, spokeswoman for the Illinois Emergency Management Agency, told the Chicago Tribune.