Israeli missile alert technology saves lives in Chile - Jerusalem Post Israel News

An Israeli company, eVigilo, is behind the timely mass evacuation in Chile on Sunday, that likely saved countless lives from the earthquake and subsequent tsunami that hit the country’s southern coast. 

After a 7.7-magnitude earthquake was registered on Sunday by Chile's naval oceanographic service, Chile's National Emergency Office (Onemi) ordered an evacuation of more than 4,000 residents and tourists from the nearby coastal areas in anticipation of a potential tsunami.

The timely warning and evacuation alert were issued through the platform of Netanya-based eVigilo to thousands of cellphones in the threatened area.

“Our company specializes in Mass-Notification and we have the ability to spread countless messages in seconds through any platform with a digital signal. Our platform is especially suitable for emergency situations and national crises,” eVigilo's CEO Lior Shalev told the Jerusalem Post.

“We have the ability to receive real time signals from various sensors and convert them to different types of alerts - from cellular notifications, to activating sirens or taking over television broadcasts - in accordance with the client’s needs.”

According to Shalev, eVigilo was founded in 2009 with the aspiration to provide a life saving solution to the alarming increase in rocket fire directed at Israeli civilians from the Gaza Strip.
After going through the most rigorous tests imaginable - administered by the IDF and far exceeding industry testing benchmarks - the company’s platform was introduced into the Home Front Command. 

“All the alert systems used by the IDF Home Front Command today, including their official app, are ours. A similar system was installed in Chile by us in 2012, following a 8.8-magnitude earthquake that hit in 2010 and a tsunami that claimed the lives of more than  560 individuals,” Shalev told the Post.

According to Shalev, following 2010’s catastrophe, Chile's President Michelle Bachelet issued a government tender for companies offering solutions that would minimize the casualties of natural disasters. With the help of an Israeli businessman living in Chile eVigilo applied for the government tender and won the bid.

Two years after the deployment of eVigilo’s system in Chile, a 8.3 Richter scale earthquake hit the Chilean shore. This time, due to early enough warning, the natural disaster claimed the lives of only five victims.
According to Onemi, Sunday’s earthquake ended with no reports of deaths or injuries, and the tsunami warning has since been lifted.

The first thing that President Bachelet said in a press conference after the tsunami was "the messages went out in time." To Shalev this is a testament to eVigilo's credit and proof that their solution “saved lives that day.”

“Our software gets signals from sensors - in Israel these are IDF sensors that detect launches made in Gaza; in Chile these are underwater seismic sensors - and knows how to analyze them in high speed. It then decides which areas are under threat and issues mass alerts to anyone within the danger zone,” Shalev explained.

According to eVigilo, this ability to make distinctions between geographic areas and even municipal precincts that are in risk and those that aren’t also save governments, municipalities and authorities money and resources.

Knowing what can happen, when and exactly where helps for faster recovery, and allows for better control of the authorities time and resource allocations.

“You don’t want to alert anyone who isn’t under threat so as to avoid 'boy who cried wolf' scenarios in the future. In Israel, they used to activate the sirens for an entire city, sending everyone to the shelters, but now, they know exactly which neighborhoods and zones to alert. "
Shalev went on to tell the Post that "Yesterday in Chile, the seismic warnings were only applicable to the southern coastal strip, and so only people who were there got the alerts.”

Since it’s establishment and proven field results in Israel and Chile, eVigilo gained significant recognition by the international community.

The Israeli company was selected by the EU Commission to co-develop a multi-channel alert system for tsunamis in Europe.

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