Emergency Preparedness


Some of these simple suggestions can help us in the event of an emergency at your location. They include:

Defensible Space

Defensible space around your home saves lives, and it's the law. Cal Fire has excellent information on defensible Space. As well, the Living with Fire in Santa Cruz County brochure is a good source of information.

Reverse 9-1-1

County emergency notification systems vary from county to county.

In 2008, Santa Cruz County expanded its reverse 9-1-1 emergency notification system to include cell phone numbers. Santa Cruz County residents were asked to go to the Santa Cruz Consolidated Emergency Communications Web site where they could self-register for this program. Residents can enter their home address and a cell phone number on which they wish to be contacted during an emergency. The system already uses the resident home land line phone number with no action needed by the resident. Some homes may no longer have a land line phone and registering a cell phone number is needed and very important for your safety. The system can send thousands of messages in a very short time based on geographic location of the incident, and it was used during the 2008 wildland fires in Santa Cruz County. So, sign up to have your cell phone included in the new emergency notification system so you can receive important messages during an emergency.

San Mateo County also has a web site that will allow their residents to include cell phone numbers, similar to the Santa Cruz County reverse 9-1-1 emergency notification system. Visit the San Mateo County community alert system web site for more details.

Santa Clara County expanded their system in September, 2009 to include mobile phones. The system, AlertSCC, is a powerful mass notification system that will be used to send emergency information and instructions to anyone who lives or works in Santa Clara County. AlertSCC will send messages to phone numbers included in the emergency 911 and 411 directory listings. In addition, by registering at AlertSCC.com you may provide additional contact information to receive messages on other devices. Visit the web site to add a mobile phone.

Note that the Santa Clara County system already uses the resident home land line phone number with no action needed by the resident.