SACRAMENTO, Calif. — If you live in the city of Sacramento, you’re probably one of more than 77,000 people that will receive an emergency alert on your phone this morning.
But don't worry, it's just a test. The Office of Emergency Management is testing the Emergency Notification System — the thing that tells you about immediate threats, everything from health threats to severe weather — today at 10 a.m.
Here's how it'll go: If you have registered cell phones and email addresses, you will get a text-based message. All residential landlines will get a recorded message.
To make sure you’ve registered, go to Sacramento-Alert.org, provide your personal information, select a username, password, and a security question. You’ll also need to select how you want to be contacted, either cell phone, text, or landline. Then register one or multiple addresses like your home or work address.
The last emergency alert test was completed in January. It was a tri-county (Yolo, Placer, Sacramento) test part of an annual testing program.
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During a real emergency the City will activate a Joint Information System which includes Public Information Officers who will provide timely, accurate, and consistent messaging via social media, media, etc. to inform the Public.
The emergency notification system has been a topic of conversation among state legislator for months. A bill signed last year by then-Governor Jerry Brown set statewide standards for when and how to warn the public about wildfires, floods and other emergencies.
Last year brought California the deadliest wildfire in the state's history — the Camp Fire. ABC10's reporting showed that local leaders did not use some of the most effective warning tools they had, like the emergency alert system and wireless emergency alerts that blast out warnings to cell phones.
They were not alone. The alerts also were not used in the wine country fires the year before. The state put out new guidelines recently, aimed at getting people to plan in advance to use those alerts in mega fires this season.
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