Deschutes 911 intros new emergency notice system

Deschutes County 911 is ready to help you, in a new way, when emergencies hit.

“Anybody who has lived in Central Oregon very long knows that we have wildfires we have flooding, we have events that affect a large number of people,” said sheriff’s Sgt. Nathan Garibay.

“this is a way to notify people in advance of an event, if there is a fire coming. (we) can let you know hours, sometimes days ahead of time,” Garibay said.

Deschutes County 911 has partnered with app developer, Everbridge to help you stay aware in an emergency situation.

“We’re excited, it’s an easy system to register for community members so they can register themselves in the event that they need to be notified in the event of an emergency,” Garibay said.

The system has been up and running in Deschutes County. But now, this platform is much more sophisticated than what they had in the past. It notifies users of an emergency with up-to-date technology.

“This includes cellphones, text messaging, a number of different contact paths that citizens can be notified by,” Garibay said.

You can even download the Everbridge app to help first responders know if you need extra assistance in the case of an emergency.

“It gives the public more ways of notifying us of their situation as well,” Garibay said.

It only takes five minutes to receive these notifications that could potentially save you from an emergency.

“It’s important technology that we are finding is critical to have real timely emergency messaging sent out to our citizens,” Garibay said.

To sign up for the app, visithttp://www.deschutes.org/911/page/sign-deschutes-emergency-alerts