Filipinos to receive disaster alerts on cellphones

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — The Philippines has passed a law that requires cellphone companies to send warnings to millions of people in the path of deadly typhoons, volcanic eruptions and earthquakes in an effort to reduce the high number of fatalities that occur almost every year.

The measure was in response to one of the deadliest typhoons ever to make landfall — Typhoon Haiyan, which killed over 6,300 people and displaced 4 million in the central Philippines last year.