MiraCosta College to use county emergency alert system

By: PHILIP K. IRELAND - Staff Writer | Friday, November 9, 2007 10:01 PM PST ∞

OCEANSIDE -- Should MiraCosta College ever face a campus emergency, students will be notified by text message, e-mail or voice mail, thanks to a ground-breaking collaboration between San Diego County and college officials.

MiraCosta administrators are now negotiating a contract with the county Office of Emergency Preparedness to use Alert San Diego at a cost of about $1,000 a year, said Joe Mazza, the college's director of risk management.

The system would automatically dial the phone numbers of students, staff and faculty to deliver a prerecorded message with emergency information and instructions.

County officials used Alert San Diego during last month's wildfires to send evacuation orders to 172,000 residents from the Mexican border to Fallbrook, said Tom Amabile, a senior emergency service coordinator with the county. County officials said they were pleased with the performance of the month-old system.

If college officials seal the deal, MiraCosta will be the first educational agency in the region to piggyback on the county system.

Primarily offered to first-response agencies such as fire districts and cities with police departments, the system may also be used by educational agencies, said Amabile.

Recognizing the need
Mazza said college officials have been looking for an emergency alert system since a gunman at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University killed 32 college students in the largest school massacre in U.S. history in April.

During a review of MiraCosta's disaster response plans last summer, county officials suggested that the college consider using the county alert system, said MiraCosta Police Chief Robert Norcross

The county will limit MiraCosta's use of the system to emergencies that fall under the following categories: those that represent an imminent threat to life or property; disaster notification; evacuation orders; and public health threats.

MiraCosta officials will be able to create various calling lists, including some that are targeted to students only, employees only, emergency response team only, or any combination.The system would not be used to make general announcements. About 10 college officials would be able to post messages via an online computer.

"We want them to know when they get a phone call with that caller ID, it's important information and they need to answer the phone and not ignore it," Amabile said,

Trial by fire
San Diego County put its emergency notification system online just two months ago at a cost of about $50,000, Amabile said. The system literally went through "trial by fire" last month when it called 172,000 residents with evacuation orders.

"That's the largest test of a system that I'm aware of -- and right out of the box," Amabile said.

The system performed well overall during the fires, although there were some glitches, he said. Some residents complained that they did not get calls to evacuate, although their neighbors did.

The Internet-based system uses telephone company databases stored on servers outside of California, Norcross said.

"The system is only as good as the database," Amabile said. "The database is not 100 percent and we are not perfect. This is just one tool that we use."

Residents must be aware of their environment and use common sense during an emergency, he said.

"If you look out your window and you see fire, you probably ought to go, even if you didn't get a call," Amabile said.

During the wildfires, the college used its Web site to post messages about school closure. The new system would be much more direct, said college spokeswoman Bonnie Hall.

The college is also working on an alert system using campus telephone lines as a fail-safe for on-campus emergencies and threats, Hall said.

Contact Philip K. Ireland at (760) 901-4043 or online at pireland@nctimes.com.