(June 18, 2009) -- Similar to a system launched in LB in Sept. 2006, L.A. County is now beginning an emergency notification system that can alert residents and businesses to emergencies by phone, text and email.
The L.A. County system lets the Sheriff's Emergency Communications Center activate local and regional alerts by drawing the boundaries of the area to be notified on a computer map; recorded and written alerts provide information on the emergency and necessary actions, such as evacuations.
A release says the County's 7.1 million land-line phone numbers are already programmed in the mass notification system, BUT (like the LB system) the public must manually register Voice over IP lines, cell phones and e-mail addresses.
The County has established a a Emergency Notification registration website to enter cell phones numbers, Voice over IP phone numbers and e-mail addresses with the County's system. Each telephone number and e-mail can be associated with only one street address.
If you haven't registered your cell phone or VOIP phone for the City of LB's emergency notification system, you can do so by clicking here.
The release says the County's system will cost $1.97 million over five years, which includes the purchase of 911 data from the local telephone companies; land-line numbers will be refreshed on a monthly basis; numbers registered on the County's website will be added on a nightly basis.
