Preparedness and Communications

A unanimous City Council vote formalized letting the city and Jersey County share the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System, and send emergency alerts to residents’ cellphones.

Across Michigan, the growing intensity of blizzards and thunderstorms is putting pressure on infrastructure that wasn’t designed for today’s climate. A new crisis playbook aims to help pay for things that FEMA may not cover.

The charge applies to all landlines and cellphones and accounts for the Central Dispatch and 911’s entire operating budget, serving all fire and emergency medical services, law enforcement, and the city of Traverse City.

The Inland Empire city in Southern California is using mapping tools and other technology to help in wildfire reduction. The city fire department’s Community Wildfire Protection Plan is a template.

Gov. Jim Pillen has issued a proclamation to put the Nebraska National Guard on active-duty status for wildfire response. Over 827,000 acres in total burned in March wildfires in the central and western parts of the state.

The Spokane Police Department will get four surveillance drones and a suite of quick-deploy road barriers to help protect Team Egypt while the region serves as the team's base camp.

In a virtual town hall meeting on fire preparedness, California officials said fire mitigation has made progress but will be put to the test this year by anticipated dramatic weather that might exacerbate wildfire risk.

The Oregon Department of Emergency Management is hosting free webinars this spring for anyone interested in helping rural communities prepare for and respond to disasters such as floods, extreme heat and wildfires.

Coming on the heels of unanswered 911 calls, the improvements are part of a $39.2 million contract that the City Council voted on last year. The work will allow Jersey City to take part in a statewide 911 upgrade.

After a mild winter that left the state with a relatively low snowpack, Gov. Tina Kotek signed an executive order on March 31 declaring drought emergencies in three eastern Oregon counties, months earlier than previous years.

The incident is affecting the towns of Pepperell, Dunstable, Townsend and Ashby. It has taken down emergency and business phone lines for police, fire, and emergency medical services departments, but not 911.

If approved, the $41,000 system would not take emergency calls, but would automatically transcribe calls, identify trends and evaluate dispatcher performance, replacing a largely manual review process.

The platform returns after its provider suffered a cybersecurity breach in November. The new iteration lets residents choose non-emergency updates, rather than having to see them all.

Residents who use the county Sheriff’s Office app can find booking and offender information — and push notifications around weather warnings. A daily bulletin feature will soon be added.

The San Diego County Sheriff's Office has deployed a new system with artificial intelligence to answer calls that are not life-threatening emergencies. Those calls previously encountered some delays.