Rowan County Emergency Management and the city of Salisbury are debuting the latest iteration of “RoCo Alerts” to keep residents up to date, in real time, about localized, emergency and non-emergency situations. It is a joint mission to provide important information at critical times.
RoCo Alerts, the county’s mass notification system available at no charge, will allow county residents to receive alerts via text, email, voice calls, and through the Everbridge app, in the event of incidents such as emergencies, road closures, inclement weather events, safety alerts and water main breaks.
To register, residents should visit rowancountync.gov/RoCoAlerts or salisburync.gov/RoCoAlerts or download the Everbridge app in the Apple App Store or Google Play Store.
RoCo Alerts is administered by Everbridge, the parent company of Nixle, Salisbury’s former mass notification system. Residents who currently receive Nixle alerts will continue to receive notifications, but in some instances, the telephone number will be different.
This partnership ensures all county citizens have the ability to receive important information from a singular source.
“Rowan County and Salisbury have always worked to provide timely messaging about important incidents and events that impact our residents and visitors,” said T.J. Brown, Rowan County Emergency Services Division Chief. “Recently, the city and the county had several events that required messaging be sent from two different systems to assure we reached everyone. After these events, it was clear we needed a single messaging system.This partnership ensures all county citizens have the ability to receive important information from a singular source. Rowan County is excited to be able to partner with Salisbury to implement the Everbridge system. This is a win-win for everyone involved.”
“When we first partnered with Nixle nearly four years ago, our goal was to make sure that we were improving communication between the city and our residents,” said City Manager W. Lane Bailey. “While we’ve certainly improved in that regard, our evolution from Nixle to RoCo Alerts will make Salisbury and the county even more effective in making sure our citizens know what’s going on in their communities. This is also an opportunity to work more closely with the county to ensure that we have a more informed citizenry.”
According to Everbridge, the software company sent out 2.8 billion notifications in 2018 and offers the ability to reach over 500 million people in more than 200 countries and territories. Everbridge currently serves 9 of the 10 largest U.S. cities.
Standard messaging rates will apply.
For more information, please call (704) 638-4460 or email coscommunications@salisburync.gov.