REVERSE 911 NOW AVAILABLE FOR CELLS

Last week, when about a million people were evacuated throughout San Diego County, a key element was the Reverse 911 system.
But people with cell phones and some who get their phone lines through cable companies or VoIP, or those with emails, have been left out.
Now such people can be included in this life-saving system.
Residents who live in San Diego County, which includes all 18 cities and the unincorporated areas of the County, are encouraged to register their cell phones and e-mail addresses for emergency notifications by visiting www.alertsandiego.org/ within the next few days.
Possible moderate to strong Santa Ana winds are forecast for next weekend, according to Fifth District Supervisor Bill Horn, who urged resident this week to take advantage of this new service.
Once e-mail addresses and cell phone numbers are registered, it will take up to 24 hours for that information to be updated into AlertSanDiego, the County of San Diego mass notification system that is commonly referred to Reverse 911.
People without a computer at home can access the Web site at county libraries.
This system, called AlertSanDiego, will be used by emergency response personnel to notify those homes and businesses at risk with information on the event and/or actions (such as evacuation) that the County is asking them to take.
The system utilizes the region’s 9-1-1 database, provided by the local telephone company(ies), and thus is able to contact land-line telephones whether listed or unlisted.
It is TTY/TDD capable. If the call is picked up by an answering machine, the system will leave a voice message. If the telephone called is busy or does not answer, the system will redial that number up to three times in an attempt to deliver the message.