The City of Philadelphia and its surrounding counties are instating a UPennAlert-style notification system, unifying all five counties in a new text-messaging safety initiative.
On Friday, county officials from all five counties and Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter held a press conference launching the ReadyNotifyPA program. Camille Barnett, city managing director, called the endeavor "a truly regional effort for emergency preparedness."
The system, developed and managed by Cooper Notification, will provide text message alerts about emergency notifications and other information, such as weather alerts, to those who sign up for the service.
In times of crisis like Sept. 11, 2001, phone lines can go down and cell-phone carrier information towers are overloaded, officials said. Text messages, however, are able to go through - which the notification plan capitalizes on.
Penn, Drexel University and other institutions and organizations helped put the plan into action, Jim Cawley, a Bucks County commissioner, said at the press conference.
Individuals can sign up with the system online at ReadyNotifyPA.org. They can choose a county of interest and a number of different types of alerts, which range from the weather to major disasters.
The public can also register for emergency notifications by texting a message to 411-91 with their county code (BUCKS, CHESCO, DELCO, MONTCO or PHILA) as the body of the text.
According to MaryAnn Marrocolo, Philadelphia's deputy managing director for emergency preparedness, most of the funding for the $900,000 project came from homeland-security funding granted from Washington DC.
Nutter encouraged Philadelphia-area residents to sign up for the service, calling it "another great tool to show regional cooperation."
Also announced at the press conference was the new Evacuation Plan for the City of Philadelphia.
The plan details evacuation routes for different parts of the city, paying special attention to pedestrians, mass transit, and private vehicles, as well as routes specifically for emergency vehicles.
For more information about Philadelphia's emergency evacuation plan and maps of emergency evacuation routes, visit www.phila.gov/ready or dial 1-877-READY-11.
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