By Staff Reports
(Kauai)– Residents and businesses are encouraged to sign up for Connect CTY, the county’s emergency notification system. A test of the system is scheduled for Thursday, Nov. 15.
“We hope to have many new subscribers between now and Nov. 15. The test will help us to establish a baseline of what a successful CTY call should look like, and diagnose any problems ahead of time,” said Civil Defense Manager Theodore Daligdig, III. “Connect CTY is a great service for our community. It delivers emergency information directly to your phone via voice, TTY, text, and by email.”
Listed phone numbers are automatically entered into the system, and users can input additional numbers and email addresses. For each account, up to three phone numbers can be entered, one TTY number for the hearing-impaired, and one text/SMS contact, along with four email addresses. The account must be tied to a valid street address on Kaua’i.
During the recent tsunami warning, a Connect CTY message was sent out, but some users who have received messages in the past reported not receiving one for this event.
“In looking at the report, it appears that the network was overloaded with calls, which prevented some of the Connect CTY calls from going through,” said Daligdig. “It’s important to remember that making only necessary calls during times of emergency would help us to get the word out as quickly as possible.”
The Connect CTY notification system has been used on Kaua’i for tsunami warnings, flash flood warnings, fire-related evacuations and water outages since May of 2009.
Currently, there are 17,866 residents and 6,103 businesses loaded into the system.
To sign up for Connect CTY or to enter additional contact points, go to the county’s homepage at www.kauai.gov and click on the Connect CTY button. If you need assistance, call the Civil Defense Agency at 241-1800.
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