AlertOC is only one of many emergency mass notification communication tools available to residents and businesses in Orange County. Cities, special districts, employers, schools and universities may have their own notification systems. Make sure you research which other systems are available in your community and sign up so that you are informed when there is a local emergency.

AlertOC offers updates across Orange County, versus a single city, employer, or school. If you live in Anaheim but work in Irvine, regularly visit your parents in Lake Forest, and attend worship in Yorba Linda, you can receive alerts that affect all four of these areas. You can specify as many locations from which to receive alerts as you want.

This is significant because, since 2017, more than 75 emergency notifications have been issued by AlertOC throughout the county. Those notifications were sent to phones and email addresses in more than 25 cities, including areas not affected by traditional emergencies (wildfires, flooding, etc.), such as Buena Park, Costa Mesa, Fullerton, Garden Grove, La Habra, La Palma, and Santa Ana.

AlertOC notifications can occur at any time, given the nature of emergencies. The system will be used by emergency response personnel to notify those homes and businesses at risk with information on a perceived, emerging, or imminent emergency event and/or actions (such as evacuation, shelter in place, gas leak, missing person, etc.) that residents or businesses are asked to take.

Being prepared can reduce the fear, anxiety and losses that accompany emergencies or disasters. Communities, families, and individuals should know what to do in the event of an earthquake and where to seek shelter during a fire. They should be ready to evacuate their homes and take refuge in public shelters and know how to care for their basic medical needs.

If an emergency or disaster occurs in your community, local government and disaster relief organizations will try to help you. But you need to be ready as well. Local responders may not be able to reach you immediately or they may need to focus their efforts elsewhere. You should know how to respond to severe weather or any disaster that could occur in your area, including earthquakes, wildfires, landslides, pandemic, flooding, terrorism and more. You should also be ready to be self-sufficient for three to seven days. This may mean providing for your own shelter, first aid, food, water and sanitation.

For more information on emergency preparedness, see Emergency Preparedness Resources: ReadyOC.