Everbridge, the global company in critical event management (CEM) and national public warning software solutions, recently announced that the State of New Jersey expanded its use of the company’s Public Safety solutions to communicate with residents across the state in times of emergency. The New Jersey State Police added Everbridge’s Resident Connection and Integrated Public Alert & Warning System IPAWS solutions to maximize the reach of their critical citizen alerts, allowing public safety officials to reach the state’s nine million residents in the event of a crisis such as hurricanes, tornadoes, and flooding.
This year marks the tenth anniversary of Hurricane Sandy, the costliest and most devastating storm to impact New Jersey. As learned during Sandy, and subsequent severe weather events that affected the Garden State, a critical part of any crisis response is the ability to share accurate information in a timely manner to the right population.
Resident Connection enables Everbridge customers to target potentially life-saving communications to impacted areas by simply drawing geo-fenced shapes on a map, allowing local, county, and state government leaders to quickly and accurately reach the largest number of people in those zones. Recipients may include the most vulnerable and often underserved populations such as residents with special needs; dependence on supplemental oxygen or medications; cognitive, visual, or hearing impairment; and those lacking Internet access.
Additionally, through Everbridge, New Jersey State Police is now able to access FEMA’s Integrated Public Alert & Warning System (IPAWS), which utilizes several communication pathways to reach the public, including: the Emergency Alert System (EAS) to deliver alerts via AM, FM and satellite radio, as well as broadcast, cable and satellite TV; Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) to deliver notifications to cell phones and mobile devices based on location, even if cellular networks are overloaded and can no longer support calls, text and emails; and integration with voice sirens, digital road signs, and emergency telephone networks.
“First responders work around the clock to protect citizens from critical events like wildfires, hurricanes and the pandemic,” said Francis Willett, Principal Product Manager for Everbridge Public Safety, “New Jersey is ahead of the curve when it comes to ensuring that the public receives potentially life-saving information, while at the same time improving message timeliness and accuracy when a crisis demands their full attention.”
Everbridge serves more than 300 organizations throughout the state of New Jersey, including local and county governments, hospitals, schools, retailers, corporations, and financial services providers. Everbridge also supports the states of Connecticut, Florida, Massachusetts, New York, Vermont, Oregon, and West Virginia; the 18 local jurisdictions comprising the National Capital Region (NCR); and thousands of municipal, territorial, and tribal governments, including 22 of the 25 largest U.S. cities.
