With the landline phone nearly gone the way of the dinosaur and the rotary phone, we all live and die by our cell phones. So San Bernardino County is urging residents to sign up for emergency alerts via cell phone. Reporter Heather Clisby has the details…
San Bernardino County’s emergency notification system, called “TENS”—Telephone Emergency Notification System—uses listed and unlisted phone numbers for emergency outreach but the database only contains land line numbers.
In reality, most of us rely more on our cell phones, so the county is urging all residents to pro-actively sign up to receive emergency alerts via text or VoIP. The TENS system is only applied during life-threatening scenarios such as wildfires, earthquakes or necessary evacuations and they do not share phone numbers with any outside entity.
To sign up, visit sbcounty.gov and click on the “Sign Up for Emergency Alerts” icon, or from the home pages of the County Fire and Sheriff’s departments at sbcfire.org or sbcsd.org. Those without internet, may also register their numbers by dialing 2-1-1.
