The record-breaking snowfall in the Mid-Atlantic region during the past week caused unprecedented numbers of road closures in Pennsylvania and forced the federal government in Washington D.C. to shut down for four days. As road crews worked around the clock and residents extracted themselves from the onslaught of February storms, Cooper Notification’s award-winning Roam Secure Alert Network (RSAN) systems sent more than 11 million messages throughout the Mid-Atlantic to communicate critical information, including school and road closures, severe weather warnings, shelter-in-place, and opening of warming centers.
Through RSAN, emergency management personnel at government buildings, college campuses and health-care facilities were able to send geographically targeted alerts, even during power outages, to communities across the Mid-Atlantic from Richmond, Va., to Philadelphia. Alerts were sent simultaneously via E-mail, text and voice to cell phones, landlines, smart phones, pagers and other devices. Utilizing multiple delivery channels increases the likelihood each population will receive the message no matter where they are located or evacuated.
“We are pleased to help communities across the Mid-Atlantic communicate critical information to protect, alert and inform their citizens during these record-breaking winter storms,” says Scott Hearn, president, Cooper Notification. “Timely, reliable and effective communications is vital when it comes to public safety, and we’d like to thank our customers such as the National Capital Region, Virginia Community College System and the Philadelphia metropolitan area for an exceptional job in not only communicating to emergency management personnel but also providing direction to their communities in a timely manner.”
