Within the next several months a mass public notification system should be in place in Mission Viejo that will help the City alert the community about local and regional emergencies such as earthquakes, fires, floods or other disasters. The City Council is expected to consider entering into a Memorandum of Understanding with the County of Orange in August.
The new Public Mass Notification system (commonly known as reverse 9-1-1), was purchased by the County of Orange. It will allow Orange County cities, UCI, and Cal State Fullerton to quickly and easily record and send time-sensitive notifications to thousands of people in minutes using a telephone or computer. Messages can be sent to recipients’ landlines, cell phones, PDAs/text-based devices, e-mail accounts and on devices for the hearing impaired. The Orange County Board of Supervisors this month gave the green light for cities that approve the MOU to use the system.
The County has awarded a contract to Blackboard, Inc. to implement the system, which uses the 9-1-1 database for the notifications. All information is confidential. Funding for the purchase of the system for notifications classified as “emergency use” is paid for by the County.
