TFCC Supports San Diego Fire Evacuations

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 26, 2007

Columbus, Ohio:  San Diego County uses AlertSanDiego, powered by Twenty First Century Communications, to make critical wildfire evacuation calls

These phone calls, numbering in the hundreds of thousands, went out to residents of San Diego County who were affected by the wildfires.

TFCC’s emergency notification system sends recorded messages to phone numbers en masse, listed and unlisted, in various geographically defined calling areas. If the system gets a busy signal, it can keep ringing until someone, or at least an answering machine, picks up the call.

Early this week, the automated emergency notifications provided evacuation announcements and instructions, a critical piece of California’s proactive coordinated disaster response efforts.

On Monday, October 22, TFCC performed seven different “geo-targeted” alerting campaigns, beginning around 7 p.m. local time with notifications to plan for precautionary evacuation. Voluntary and mandatory evacuation notices followed, advising residents of different areas to go to the Del Mar Fairgrounds, the Plaza Camino Real Shopping Center, and to QualComm Stadium.

By noon on Tuesday, 394,915 calls had been made to San Diego County households, the most extensive emergency notification in the county to date.

Emergency alerts make all the difference in San Diego. Four years ago this week, the worst wildfires in California’s history burned nearly 750,000 acres, destroyed 3,600 homes and other buildings, and killed 24 people across Southern California, with much of the damage and more than a dozen of the deaths in San Diego County.

At the time, there were complaints that residents received little warning about the deadly blaze.

This week many San Diego area residents and local officials have reported that the response has been much more effective than in 2003. The evacuations have been successful and significant loss of life was prevented – due to the use of the emergency telephone notification system.

The technology is being highly touted from San Diego to Sacramento. Twenty First Century is proud to be the provider of that system, AlertSanDiego.

“Twenty First Century provides emergency notification services to cities and counties all over the United States. It is rewarding to know that, from here in Columbus, we can make a difference for the people affected by disaster,” said James Kennedy, Twenty First Century Communications President and CEO.

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