Sending a text message to a mobile phone at the first sign of trouble is very, very easy, and doesn't require email. Most of the mobile services that support text messaging have a web interface that you can POST to from a Perl script. (This is also an easy way to WOW management on Perl.)

Consult the LWP documentation for sample form-posting code, or search the Monastary for examples. (I found one here that shows how to send a message via Sprint PCS.)