Redwood City — Thanks to an improved emergency alert and warning system, those who live and work in San Mateo County can now get messages via text, email and voice that include maps, images and multiple languages.
The new features of SMCalert are meant to empower residents further by providing key information to help keep them safe and navigate away from incidents like major traffic delays and detours, wildfires, floods and mountain lions. The added capabilities are due to a new vendor, RAVE, which replaces former provider Everbridge.
SMCalert is a free notification system used to immediately alert you of urgent or emergency situations. Senders include the county and its cities; the new alert system has an improved identification component to show recipients exactly which agency sent the message. The new system also lets you choose to receive messages in English, Spanish or Simplified Chinese.
Existing recipients of SMCalert are encouraged to create a new account to enable the new features. If you don’t, you will continue receiving alerts as before, but cannot take advantage of the added features. To do so, visit www.SMCalert.info
Those who do not currently use SMCalert are also urged to sign up and customize the types of alerts they’d like to receive.
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