Riding the DC metro to my office in Alexandria, VA this morning, I was struck by an ad on the yellow line train to King Street:

It says “A lot could be happening while you’re sitting there reading this.” and it’s an ad for Capitalert.gov which sends emergency alert messages in the Washington, DC area via email or SMS.

According to their website, the service provides alerts for:

• Major emergencies, like terrorism or natural disasters
• Severe weather
• Severe traffic
• Amber alerts
• School and government closings

The ad seems to imply that if disaster strikes and you’re sitting on the Metro, you won’t know about it until it’s potentially too late.

All well & good, except one catch:

A lot of the DC Metro system is underground, and when it’s underground there’s no AT&T cell service (only Verizon works in the tunnels, to the relief of many a Blackberry-addicted Hill staffer).

Let’s cry for all those clueless iPhones.