Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Emergency Management topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Cochise County emergency director urges residents to sign up for alerts and explains Ready, Set, Go
Summary
Daniel DeShawn, Cochise County’s director of emergency management, explained how AlertSense and the Ready, Set, Go program work, urged residents to sign up at the county alert site, and described sheltering and evacuation procedures.
Daniel DeShawn, director of emergency management for Cochise County, urged residents on KWCD’s First Watch to sign up for the county’s emergency alerts and explained how the county uses multiple systems to reach people during fires, floods and other hazards.
DeShawn described five primary channels the county uses: targeted wireless emergency alerts for cell phones, automated voice messages to landlines, the Emergency Alert System that interrupts broadcasts, county social-media posts and coordinated PIO messages, and the AlertSense mass-notification platform. He said the county draws a map for each alert so only people in the affected area receive the message.
“You sign up in advance and it ties your phone number to your address,” DeShawn said. That lets the county send a message to a home address even if a resident’s phone is away from home. He also suggested that family members can tie their cell number to a relative’s address to assist with evacuations.
DeShawn reviewed the Ready, Set, Go framework, a statewide sheriff’s association initiative that the county uses to standardize preparedness and evacuation messaging. He said Ready means preparing now (plans for pets, prescriptions and paperwork), Set means be alert and prepare to evacuate (often called pre-evacuation), and Go means imminent danger and immediate evacuation.
DeShawn gave practical examples: AlertSense can issue boil-water advisories when water systems are opened for repairs; the system is tied to National Weather Service information; and the county works with the American Red Cross to open shelters during larger evacuations. He said the county’s alert sign-up page is cochise.myfreealerts.com and that flyers with QR codes will be distributed through county PIO channels and posted on the Cochise County Sheriff's Office Facebook page.
He encouraged residents who are not comfortable with technology to ask younger relatives for help, noted the system uses two-factor authentication for new sign-ups, and recommended that people call 911 in an emergency rather than attempting to reach the sheriff directly.
