El Mirage opens Civic Ready mass-notification sign-ups; city expects full IPAWS integration in January

The City of El Mirage’s Intergovernmental and Public Relations Division on June 17 told the council that residents can now subscribe to emergency and non-emergency alerts via the Civic Ready mass-notification system.

Carrie Sliva, the city’s marketing and communications specialist and public information officer, said the system allows residents to receive alerts by text, email and phone and to select topical lists for emergency alerts, city news and updates, parks and recreation and business notices. She said a text-based signup option is available by texting keywords to 38276 (for example, text "ELMIRAGE" to sign up for emergency alerts by text). Sliva stressed that signing up via text alone signs the user up only for the text channel; subscribers can later add email and phone notifications in the portal.

Sliva said the city’s outreach would begin immediately and that outgoing messages from the system would start July 1 with a welcome message. She also said the city expects to integrate the system with the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Integrated Public Alert & Warning System (IPAWS) in January, which would allow the city to issue geographically targeted public safety alerts through the wider federal alerting infrastructure.

Why it matters: The system provides residents more options to receive emergency and city information; officials encouraged residents to opt in and to select all channels for the broadest coverage.

Ending: Staff invited council and residents to share the signup information; the city will begin outreach and an initial message on July 1.