As part of the city’s ongoing efforts to improve disaster preparedness, the city will conduct a full-scale test of Everbridge, Malibu’s disaster mass notification system, on Wednesday, June 26.
Cellphones are a necessity when it comes to hearing from authorities in an emergency.
“We are already applying lessons learned from the devastating Woolsey Fire, as well as the historic wildfires that have ravaged California in recent years, to keep improving our emergency communications for future disasters,” Mayor Jefferson “Zuma Jay” Wagner said in a press release. “This test will help us refine the system and raise awareness among the community of this important tool so that we are all better prepared.”
Previously, only landline numbers were provided to the city by the phone companies. Now, the city will be able to increase the number of cellphones in the Everbridge database from about 3,000 to about 12,000.
According to the press release, following the test, the city will analyze the effectiveness of the system and will conduct additional outreach to register more residents. In addition, the city is working on other methods for emergency outreach.
In efforts to distribute information out to the community, the city is already installing repeaters for handheld radios The Community Emergency Response Team members and Volunteers on Patrol use and make it accessible to the community.
The city also reported it is considering loudspeaker siren towers that can be solar- or battery-powered and can be programmed remotely to broadcast audio messages when other methods are to be implemented.
In addition to the broadcast audio messages, printed public information would be posted on bulletin boards by a community member one or more times a day. These bulletin boards will be placed in public locations such as shopping centers, gas stations and near emergency supplies storage containers.