DANBURY — In the wake of severe storms, the city has launched a new emergency system to alert residents during snowstorms, flooding or other hazardous events.
Called Danbury ALERT, this replaces the old Smart911 system and is powered by the Everbridge platform that the state uses.
Through the system, officials may communicate in “real time” to warn and instruct residents about any emergency, including storms, fires and water main breaks, said Matthew Cassavechia, the city’s director of emergency management and emergency medical services.
“Now more than ever, this is becoming more and more important that we have the ability to communicate real-time information to the community,” he said. “This is part of our overall commitment to increase the level of safety for our residents, which is top of mind of the mayor and I.”
Over the last year and half, Danbury has faced disasters from Tropical Storm Isaias, which knocked out power for several days in August 2020, to the remnants of Hurricane Ida, which caused severe flooding in September.
The city transitioned to the new system around September and October, but is starting to promote the system, with the goal of getting 70,000 to 80,000 residents signed up, Cassavechia said.
“It’s a much better system than our previous system and offers us a lot more customization,” Mayor Joe Cavo said. “In the end, our goal is to be able to inform the public when there are large events going on in the city.”
Danbury started researching a new system after Cassavechia became emergency management director last year.
The city liked this platform because it offers multiple languages and allows officials to be “granular” in their messages, he said.
“We can send the message very specifically to residents that may be affected by whatever the situation is,” he said.
The city and state can better share information because they’re in the same platform, as well, he said.
The old program had 12,000 residents signed up, but 45,000 are already in the new system. Some people have signed up already, while others were already in the system because they were signed up for the state notifications, Cassavechia said.
“We’re hoping that we’re going to be build a really good base of folks that will be able to take advantage of this notification system,” Cavo said.
The city transferred residents signed up for the old system into the new one, but Cassavechia encouraged all residents to sign up anyway in case there were problems in the transition.
“I encourage people to go into the system, make sure that they register for this system,” he said. “We have a high confidence that they're already in the system, but having said that I want to be sure.”
Once more people are registered, the city plans to conduct a test and study how effective the system is, he said. Cassavechia said he expects it will be effective.
Residents may sign up to be notified over email, text message or voice call. They are required to enroll in emergency notifications, but may subscribe to community notifications, system tests, and non-emergency public health and public works notices.
Instructions to register are on the city’s website.
The city won’t bombard people with notifications, Cassavechia said.
“This is not, ‘We have a bake sale,’” he said. “There are specific alerts that people can sign up for.”
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November 26, 2021 at 06:04PM
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Danbury launches new emergency alert system after storms Isaias, Ida - Danbury News Times
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