Arlington Hts.starts mass emergency alert system

Arlington Heights has implemented the Everbridge Mass Emergency Notification System, which enables the village to quickly disseminate critical information regarding emergency and nonemergency situations to thousands of residents and businesses.

The mass notification system allows village emergency personnel to send important messages regarding natural disasters, missing persons and other crises affecting the community across many communication devices - including home phone, cell phone, e-mail, text messaging, fax, pager, or personal data assistants (PDAs) and more.

With the new mass notification system, any home and business landline numbers listed in the Northwest Central Dispatch System's 911 database will automatically receive any emergency messages sent by the village. Anyone answering the phone dialed will hear the emergency message, or the message will be left on an answering machine. If phone lines are busy when a message is sent, the notification system will redial a number of times.

If desired, residents can also register cell phones and pagers for additional ways to receive emergency alerts. Registering multiple communication devices ensures that alerts will be sent to more than one device. In the registration process, residents can also subscribe to receive nonemergency information such as road closures or other important nonemergency notifications affecting their neighborhoods or the community.

By clicking on the "Citizen Alert Notification Sign-Up" button on the Home Page of vah.com, citizens will be guided through a quick, step-by-step process of identifying preferred methods of contact and choosing what types of Village information they would like to receive.

Through the registration process, residents can also choose to "opt-out" and remove their contact information from the notification system. Those who opt-out will no longer receive emergency notifications.

Those without Internet access can call (847) 368-5104 and request registration information or learn of locations where assistance will be available for registering different communication methods.