Emergency alert sign-ups on the rise in wake of recent fires

The latest emergency alert sent out in Monterey County was just two weeks ago for a fire in Big Sur.

Monterey County Emergency Services currently has about 147,000 contacts in their data base and are looking to add more.

“We constantly keep pushing it. A number of the cities and local jurisdictions have helped us pass out the brochures,” Monterey County emergency service planner Patrick Moore said. “We do public speaking presentations on preparedness. The better prepared we are the more people we have in the
system”

That number is small compared to the over 430,000 people in the county and Moore says a lot of people are hesitant to give their information, but it’s necessary for them to be informed of emergencies in their area.

“We need to know where you’re at we don’t send out usually a message to the entire county unless its a catastrophic emergency,” Moore said. “The North Bay fire would be a perfect example.”

Alert Monterey County has had a higher number of sign-ups in the last few weeks because of natural disasters around the state.

“Every time we have a major fire a major disaster in California people will sign up,” Moore said.

In the past week, 79 new people have opt-in to receive alerts in Monterey County.

You can sign-up on Alert Monterey Counties website here