From gameday road closures to hurricane preparedness messages, Gainesville residents can now receive emergency alerts sent straight to their phones.
The city of Gainesville began rolling out its new emergency alert system at the beginning of August, said Chip Skinner, city spokesperson. The app, called alertGNV, allows users to choose among text messages, faxes, emails, application notifications and phone calls to receive alerts.
The Gainesville Police Department, Gainesville Fire Rescue and the Communications Office of Gainesville will send out notifications about road closures, power outages, severe weather, fires and criminal activity. The app is available on the Apple App Store and Google Play.
“It’s a great way for the citizens to sign up and pick the notifications they want and which medium they prefer,” Skinner said.
The service comes at no cost to residents nor the citybecause the Florida Division of Emergency Management has had a statewide contract with Everbridge, the company that runs alertGNV, since 2016. City residents whose numbers are published in the phone book will automatically be enrolled, but they can opt out of the service, he said.
Before, the city relied on the website SafeGNV.com to share information about emergencies, Skinner said. Alerts could also be communicated through the reverse 911 system, which allows the city to send messages to phones listed in the 911 directory.
One of the most important features of the alert system is a geofence, which allows officials to draw virtual geographic boundaries around affected areas, Skinner said. This can be used if there is an isolated incident in which only users in a certain area require updates.
Even non-Gainesville residents can sign up for these alerts. Anyone with the Everbridge system will get notifications once they enter into Gainesville’s geofence, he said.
Alachua County resident Victor Ventura, 28, looks forward to receiving alertGNV messages via text. Ventura feels that while students already have an alert system through UF, it is something the rest of the city lacked.
“I think the school does a good job at it but I’ve been here for a while, and I haven’t gotten any alerts of anything,” Ventura said.
