How Alerts Work — YANA-IGY

A transparent look at how emergency alerts travel from detection to your phone — keeping you informed without revealing the inner workings of our systems.

Step 1 — Disaster Detection

YANA-IGY continuously monitors publicly available government data sources around the clock. These include real-time feeds from agencies such as:

USGS — earthquake and seismic activity data
NOAA / National Weather Service — severe weather watches, warnings, and advisories
NASA — satellite-based fire detection
NOAA buoy networks — ocean conditions and coastal monitoring
USGS water resources — river gauges and flood stage levels

When any of these sources reports a potential threat, YANA-IGY's analysis systems evaluate the data to determine whether an alert should be issued.

Step 2 — Threat Analysis

Raw data from government feeds doesn't automatically become an alert. YANA-IGY applies multi-factor analysis to assess each potential threat across several dimensions:

Location & proximity — Where is the threat relative to subscribed counties?
Timing & speed — How quickly could the threat reach affected areas?
Severity assessment — Does the event meet the threshold to warrant an alert?
Secondary hazards — Could this event trigger cascading dangers (e.g., earthquake causing tsunami)?

Only events that meet YANA-IGY's alert criteria are advanced to the verification stage. This process is designed to minimize false alarms while maximizing early warning time.

Step 3 — Alert Verification

Before any alert reaches a resident, it must pass through multiple independent verification checks:

      Encryption & integrity —
      Every alert payload is encrypted and digitally signed to prevent tampering. If the signature doesn't match, the alert is rejected.
    

      Confidence scoring —
      Alerts must meet a minimum confidence threshold before they are approved for delivery. This gate prevents uncertain or low-quality data from generating false alerts.
    

      Compliance review —
      All outgoing messages are checked to ensure they comply with federal regulations (TCPA and FCC).
      YANA-IGY alerts contain only a directive to move to safety — never guidance, instructions, or advice.
    

All verification layers must pass before an alert is released. If any check fails, the alert is held.

Step 4 — Alert Delivery to Residents

Verified alerts are delivered to opted-in county residents through a two-tier system designed to work even when infrastructure fails:

Primary: SMS Alerts

YANA-IGY sends SMS text messages to all subscribers in the affected county. Messages follow a strict format:

      Threat level • Hazard type • Direction • ETA • Safety window • Move directive
    

Messages are short, clear, and actionable. They tell you what is coming and when — the decision to move is always yours.

Fallback: Mesh Relay

When cell towers go down during a disaster, YANA-IGY's Ripple Mesh Relay takes over. Opted-in phones broadcast the alert to nearby devices using Bluetooth Low Energy and Wi-Fi — no cell signal required. Each phone passes the alert to the next, spreading outward like ripples in a pond. The moment any phone in the chain regains connectivity, all collected alerts are uploaded and delivered.

No personal data is shared through the mesh — only encrypted alert data (message, timestamp, and general location).

Accessibility

YANA-IGY includes Vibe Text / Dual-Sense accessibility features for residents who are blind or have low vision. Alerts can be delivered as vibrating Braille patterns, spoken audio, or both simultaneously. Subscribers can enable this feature and choose their preferred mode at any time.

What YANA-IGY Does NOT Do

YANA-IGY does not replace government emergency systems (WEA, EAS, AMBER).
YANA-IGY does not provide guidance, instructions, or evacuation routes — only alert-to-move directives.
YANA-IGY does not share, sell, or expose personal data. Phone numbers are used solely for alert delivery.
YANA-IGY does not use sirens or external hardware — it is entirely a digital SMS and mesh-based system.

How YANA-IGY Propagates Alerts