Emergency Management has published an interesting story on using so-called “Messaging Systems” as a means of quickly reaching residents during emergency events. These messaging systems can contact people through various means including phone or email depending on how they’re set up.
While these are generally proprietary systems and aren’t free, the community profiled in this article reports that the PR payback has been huge. The city administrator reported:
He said he still gets stopped in public and thanked by residents appreciative of the information he provided during Hurricane Ike. “You know, it could have been the mayor, it could have been me, it could have been the city secretary — didn’t make any difference — as long as it was the same person, that gave them some degree of comfort that the message going out was official.”
You can read the whole article over on Emergency Management’s website.
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