As fires bore down Sunday night on residential neighborhoods in Sonoma and Napa counties, some residents received phone, email and text alerts ordering them to evacuate.
But not everyone got the warning, leading some local residents to wonder how they’d get word of an emergency situation.
The Davis Police Department uses SAC Region Citizen Alert, a partnership among all public safety agencies in Yolo, Sacramento and Placer counties to alert residents to emergency events and other important public-safety information.
To receive notifications, residents opt in to the system by registering their phone number at www.yolo-alert.org. For Sacramento and Placer county alerts, register at www.sacramento-alert.org and www.placer-alert.org. Information is kept confidential.
“We can send out systemwide blasts or create alert zones to send information to a particular neighborhood through landline, or cell, or both,” Davis Police Chief Darren Pytel said. “We strongly encourage everyone in Davis and surrounding communities to register for this system because it is our primary way of immediately contacting residents in case of emergency.”
The system also is used by the Yolo County Office of Emergency Services. According to county spokeswoman Beth Gabor, its database already includes all listed and unlisted landline phone numbers serviced by AT&T and Verizon.
“To ensure that residents receive emergency notices in a timely manner, both at work and home, residents are encouraged to log on to the system and provide other contact options,” Gabor said, including home and cell numbers serviced through other providers, work numbers, email, TTY devices and instant messaging information.
Alerts and notifications that residents might receive through this system include time-sensitive messages about flooding, levee failures, severe weather, disaster events, unexpected road closures, missing persons and evacuations of buildings and neighborhoods in specific geographic locations.
Pytel said his agency has used the system several times, including an incident several years ago in which police received a report of an armed man on a school campus, prompting a lockdown at the school.