"This technology is very important especially in light of the fact that our state has faced 19 devastating disasters over the last three years," Blunt said. "We continue to take aggressive steps to improve our overall emergency preparedness and response, and to proactively reach out to communities to help save lives and property."
The call down system is designed to contact the Homeland Security Regional Response Systems, Emergency Management Directors, regional fire mutual aid coordinators, state employees in the Division of Fire Safety, MIAC, and State Emergency Operations Center (SEOC) responders, and shelter points of contact. Presiding commissioners will also be included in future tests.
On Friday, October 24, and again on Tuesday, November 11, the State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) in conjunction with multiple state agency partners under the Department of Public Safety (DPS) successfully tested more than 1,300 contacts throughout the state that may be utilized during a disaster.
In the initial two tests, response organizations were notified within minutes of call system activation. During both tests, the system contacted 1,300 telephone numbers within five minutes and produced a report detailing the success of the calls showing those answered live, by machine or those that were failed numbers.
During a real event, SEMA will be able to contact key responders and decision makers by region, by discipline or by county.
