Here are some local resources to help you, your family and your business to be prepared in The OC!
About Ready OC
http://www.readyoc.org
ReadyOC is a public service campaign aimed at educating and empowering Orange County residents, businesses and the community to better prepare for emergency situations.
The goals of the campaign are to get local residents better prepared for a variety of emergency situations that could impact the county and also to offer opportunities for concerned citizens to get involved in local readiness efforts.
Funded through the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, ReadyOC is administered by the Santa Ana and Anaheim police departments as part of the Urban Area Security Initiative (UASI) in conjunction with the Orange County Sheriff’s Department. The campaign is guided by the ReadyOC Steering Committee comprised of emergency management personnel representing several local government agencies and advised by a Corporate Advisory Council that includes many of Orange County's leading businesses and organizations.
Working together, everyone can make a difference in creating awareness, motivating preparedness and encouraging involvement.
About Alert OC
http://bos.ocgov.com/alertoc/alertoc.asp
AlertOC is Orange County’s regional public mass notification system designed to keep those who live or work in Orange County informed of important information during emergency events. The system is sponsored and led by the County of Orange in partnership with many Orange County cities.
Public mass notification systems have become a critical component of emergency preparation and response.
Residents prepare to be notified of emergencies by providing their landline phones, cell phones and e-mail addresses.
Public safety officials respond by using the system to rapidly send out messages when there is a perceived, upcoming or imminent situation that may require community action.
Based on the severity of the event, AlertOC may be used to contact residents by one or all of the following methods: home phone, work phone, cell phone, e-mail, text message. Mass notification systems have been attributed with saving lives during the 2007 Southern California wildfires by quickly notifying residents of evacuation instructions at all hours.
The legal authority (County or City) responsible for announcing emergency notifications depends on the nature and scale of the incident. With the AlertOC partnership between the County and Cities, residents and businesses only need to provide their contact information once to receive emergency messages from either the County or City in which they live or work.