San Diego County Emergency Notification Tip: Register Your Cell Phone to Your Home Address

The County of San Diego, in partnership with Twenty First Century Communications, Inc., has instituted a regional notification system that will be able to send telephone notifications to residents and businesses within San Diego County impacted by, or in danger of being impacted by, an emergency or disaster.

This system, called AlertSanDiego, will be used by emergency response personnel to notify those homes and businesses at risk with information on the event and/or actions (such as evacuation) they are asking you to take. The system utilizes the regions 9-1-1 database, provided by the local telephone company(ies), and thus is able to contact land-line telephones whether listed or unlisted. It is TTY/TDD capable. If the call is picked up by an answering machine, the system will leave a voice message. If the telephone called is busy or does not answer, the system will redial that number up to three times in an attempt to deliver the message.

Because the system uses the 9-1-1 database, only land-line numbers are in the system. If you have a Voice over IP (VoIP) or cellular telephone and would like to be notified over that device, or if you would like an email notification, you must register those telephone numbers and/or email address for use by the system. To register your VoIP, cellular telephone or email address, please fill out the registration form at: http://www.sdcounty.ca.gov/oes/ready/signup.html .

Each number and/or email provided will be added to the regional database. It is important to note that each number and/or email registered can only be associated with one address in the system. The telephone number you register will be called only when the address it is associated with is impacted by a disaster or emergency.

There is no better way to protect yourself than be ON THIS NOTIFICATION SYSTEM!!

It worked for my family. It worked for my relatives and it worked for my friends. If you are one of the thousands that are going to cell only for phone service, you must get that cell registered with the County system. Do it today! Again the link is:

http://www.sdcounty.ca.gov/oes/ready/signup.html

Bob