Building a better emergency management plan through resident opt-ins

Does your organization have an emergency management plan? Whether you’re a serving a booming metropolitan area, small rural town, or anything in between, every type of community is susceptible to damages caused by uncontrollable external forces. Hurricanes, wildfires, flooding, severe thunderstorms, tornadoes, any of these could devastate your community if you aren’t properly prepared beforehand with a thorough emergency management plan that can be put into play whenever necessary. While buildings and infrastructure may be important assets, the most critical factor every government agency should be aiming to protect is the residents they serve. Luckily, these same residents can also be your most powerful tool to ensure your community is safe and prepared in the event of an emergency. By getting residents to opt-in to your communication systems, you are making residents a fundamental part of your emergency management plan. And what better way to protect your residents than to arm them with the knowledge they need to protect themselves? By getting residents to opt-in to your Everbridge system, you are building a unified central network that can be leveraged to ensure all members of the community are aware in real-time of what actions they should take to allow your plan to be executed in the manner it was designed. This will only work, however, if residents are already opted-in. The best way to get residents to opt-in to your Everbridges system is to reach out before an emergency occurs, otherwise it will be too late. To take a recent example, let’s look at how the Florida Department of Emergency Management prepared for Hurricane Matthew in October of 2016. By getting ahead of the storm and urging residents to opt-in before the storm hit, the Florida EMA was able to gain over 350,000 unique resident opt-ins to their Everbridge system over a span of only 48 hours. By making resident opt-in campaigns part of their emergency management plan for a hurricane, the Florida EMA was able to directly notify over a third of a million more residents than they would have otherwise. Gaining resident opt-ins should be a central part of any emergency management plan and can help your organization keep residents safe and informed when disaster strikes. Everbridge makes it easy to gain resident opt-ins, residents can simply text their zip code to 888-777 to opt-in. Learn more about how your organization can partner with Everbridge. Watch the replay of our webinar with Capt James Ryan of the South Brunswick PD to hear him discuss how his department used Everbridge Nixle to protect their residents during Hurricane Sandy.