The concept of alert is used in our language with the mission of designating a state or situation of alert, which can affect a person or a city, respectively , among other cases.
When a person is alert, all their senses , but especially sight and hearing, will be engaged in the task of detecting some danger or threat that is expected or that is believed to occur. This is also accompanied by a state of tension, of nervousness, because of course, that threat or danger awakens the fear of not being able to protect or save themselves, despite being alert.
People usually become alert when there are various elements or antecedents that indicate that we may suffer a complication. Thus, if there were many violent assaults in the neighborhood in which we live in recent weeks, we will be very alert when entering and leaving the house.
Moreover, mass communication and meteorological services are usually broadcast communications warns when it happens event of transcendence or no concrete information about a weather event of importance occurs, as in the case of an earthquake , tsunami, tornado , among others, which can have tremendous consequences for the physical and material integrity of an area.
The meteorological services before the imminence of a strong storm, to cite one example, issue several alerts that are widely disseminated through the mass media and that contain clear and concrete information on how to act in the face of it: stay indoors, do not leave the houses, do not remove the waste to avoid clogging of sewers, among others.
Likewise, a nation can determine a state of alert when a situation gets out of control or when a high-impact natural or social disaster is expected.
At the request of the emergency protocols, the state of alert is that moment prior to the succession of a disaster and the mission of declaring it is that everyone can take the necessary precautions to receive the succession of the same. That is, do not take them by surprise and be able to avoid the greatest amount of losses in every way.