Trial Runs of Malibu’s New Emergency
Notification System Are Described as Successful
• Unlisted Numbers Can Be Added to
Reverse 911 Database
On Saturday, the City of Malibu used its
new emergency notification system to summon its Certified
Emergency Response Training volunteers to an evacuation
drill at Zuma Beach. City Emergency Services
Coordinator Brad Davis said the call to take part in the mock
emergency exercise had a “100 percent success
rate.”
The notification system, Contact-CTY,
is a form of what is often dubbed a “Reverse-911”
system. It was created for Malibu and is expected to cost
about $16-18,000 a year to maintain. Costs are based on census
figures, Davis said.
The setup designed by the firm NTI was
implemented because communication failures during last
October’s Canyon Fire were, according to Davis,
“the straw that broke the camel’s back.”
Davis acknowledged reports that Malibu
residents received partial messages or, as in the
case of the Malibu Surfside News lines, recordings that told
them to “push button two” without saying why.
If one did, nothing happened, and the call disconnected.
The new system will allow city
officials to send thousands of voice mail messages to the
residential and business telephone numbers in its database in a
short period of time.
Only public safety messages will be sent
through this system, Davis said. Wildfires, floods and
significant road closures are among the
types of incidents that would warrant announcements.
The city’s website
(www.malibu.ca.gov), telephone hotline (310-456-9982), cable
television channel (3), and the radio station (AM 1620) will
continue to serve in their present capacities.
The first areawide test of the Contact-CTY
system was on Tuesday, Jan. 29, when calls were made to
registered numbers culled from the white pages of the local
telephone directory.
Davis said 4282 calls were made with a 77
percent success rate, which he indicated is “considered
high.” Only numbers with Malibu area codes and prefixes,
which poses some cellular issues that are still being
addressed, can be included in the database.
No unlisted or business numbers were called
in that test. Davis said the city cannot legally make calls to
unlisted numbers, even if Malibu is under siege. Those
numbers have to be “self-registered” into the
system, he added.
Cell phones are also not automatically
available for inclusion in the database “because there
are so many carriers,” according to Davis, but those
people can also self-register their numbers.
Davis said an address can register up to
five telephone numbers. E-mail addresses can also be
registered. “We want to encourage everyone
to self-register to the fullest extent,” he added.
The city’s goal is to have a way to
contact everyone in Malibu within minutes when a crisis
hits.
Those currently in the system who do not
want to receive emergency notifications can opt out of it
by calling 310-456-2489, extension 335.
Addition of new Malibu area numbers or the
alteration of numbers that are currently in the database can be
done through the city’s website.
