Birmingham sets up alerts system to warn residents of emergencies

Birmingham City Council is setting up a free early warning system where residents of the UK's second city can sign up to get alerts of imminent evacuations or other emergencies.

 

The move is part of the Council's Birmingham Resilience Team's outreach to best inform people about emergency incidents from the most serious – natural disaster to major terrorist incidents – to such issues that may affect them or their relatives from flooding and power failures, major road closures, potential health risks from environmental problems and actual evacuations. 

 

“We want to inform and warn the population of any issues that may affect them or their families by as many means as we can,” the team's emergency planning officer Glen Curry told PublicTechnology.Net.

 

“Rapid delivery of information to as many people as possible is critical in emergencies to protect and reassure the public and manage the incident,” added Councillor Paul Tilsley, deputy leader of the Council, whose portfolio includes emergency planning. “This [will make] it easy for residents to stay informed by choosing the best way for them to receive alerts and makes sure accurate and timely information is delivered automatically to the people affected.”

 

The new Birmingham Community Alert service automatically sends emergency messages based on postcode area via a range of media - email, SMS, automated voice calls to mobile phone or landlines, pager or fax. Brummies can select their preferred methods of contact on sign up, which can be done either by text or at the Council's micro-site (see below). Two further locations can be added, such as a work address and a relative or friend.

 

“We see this being of use in situations like the kind of flooding Birmingham suffered from in 2007 and 2009 as much as insurance against major city-wide disasters, which obviously none of us ever want to see,” added Curry. “It's just sensible to plan ahead for all eventualities.”

 

The system is based on software called Horizon from a company called HTK, which is also used by 30 of the UK's 43 police forces as well as other local authorities.

 

Birmingham's emergency preparation site is at birminghamprepared.gov.uk