Contra Costa County’s community warning system needs to undergo some serious improvements, according to a 16-page Civil Grand Jury Report released at the end of May.
The system has been operational since 2001, but there haven’t been opportunities to test it: no floods, or extreme fires have affected the county. The report recommends making improvements to the system by 2025, before it’s too late.
Chief among the recommendations is to automatically enroll residents in the warning system, unless they choose to opt out. Currently, enrollment is voluntary. Only 30 percent of residents have signed up to receive alerts, leaving the rest of the population at risk during a natural disaster.
The success of emergency warning systems is often dependent upon redundancies: meaning there can’t just be one method for alerting residents to disasters. Automatic enrollment in the system is one of many steps the county needs to take in order to strengthen it.
The report also recommends broadcasting emergency alerts through long-range acoustic devices that can be heard up to a mile away. This would be critical for people who may not have service, or are away from their phones. However, the county needs to study if, how, and where audible alerts could be most effective.
Improvements will be paid for by Measure X, a sales tax approved by voters in November 2020.
