SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — As Hurricane Hilary approaches, there are some useful tools the county is urging people to take advantage of.
“Make sure you’re ready with a plan of action,” said Jeff Toney, Director, Office of Emergency Services, County of San Diego.
Toney says one of the best ways to be ready is to check out alertsandiego.org. You can enroll your phone number or email address to receive emergency alerts directly to your device.
“You can get texts and phone calls and emails when something is happening in your neighborhood,” said Toney.
He says the alerts are designed to help San Diegans in the event of a mass emergency such as a wildfire, earthquake or extreme weather.
The other thing you can do is download theSan Diego emergency app on your smartphone.
The app shows important emergency alerts in real-time and what’s happening around the county.
“Everything in the palm of your hand response information, preparedness information it’s right there,” said Toney.
The app offers an interactive emergency map to see what’s happening near you.
“Put in your address and we can really geolocate if it’s a small emergency in your neighborhood, you can get notified versus a bigger wireless emergency alert,” said Toney.
Toney says the app is also equipped with earthquake early warning technology: "If you have this and you are near an epicenter of an earthquake 4.5 or higher...chances are you’ll get a few seconds of warning before that shaking starts. So we did invest in that tool. It’s really handy and I’ve seen it work in real time."
