GovDelivery for Weather-Related Emergencies

Palm trees bending in hurricane windsTruck driving through flood waterHurricane evacuation route sign

When severe weather or weather-related emergencies occur – a hurricane, snowstorm, flooding or wildfires – citizens expect the most up-to-date information to be immediately available.

GovDelivery's email and digital subscription management system allows government organizations to communicate time-sensitive information to residents quickly, efficiently and in a cost-effective manner. Organizations using GovDelivery provide citizens with better emergency preparedness and response by proactively delivering updates via email, text message and RSS.

With Hurricane Gustav set to make landfall in early September 2008, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) utilized GovDelivery's email subscription service to inform 10,000 subscribers in six Gulf Coast states of hurricane-related updates. In the wake of the hurricane, the agency requested that subscribers forward the information to family and friends in the region. To reach citizens in a specific region or location, FEMA utilizes GovDelivery's filter or segmenting feature, which collects zip code information for highly targeted and personalized communications.

"This enables us to send bulletins to subscribers in a disaster area declared by the president, by county, state, or territory. Many of our subscribers sign up for notifications such as an emergency and major disaster declarations and news releases."
-Eugene Luke, Emergency Management Specialist

The City of St. Paul, Minnesota looks to GovDelivery as a reliable system to inform residents when a snow emergency is declared and special parking restrictions go into effect. The City sent nearly 70,000 snow emergency notifications during from October 2008 to March 2009. Offering email and text message updates during a snow emergency keeps residents informed and prevents them from incurring the cost and stress of having their cars towed.

Somerset County, NJ utilizes GovDelivery email and text messaging to inform residents of flood watches and warnings, in addition to flood-related county road and bridge closings. Emergency alerts became the most popular subscription item when Somerset County experienced flooding in August 2008 and needed to notify residents of National Weather Service alerts, road closings and emergency response information.

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During the October 2007 California wildfires San Bernardino County leveraged email to inform residents of the declared local emergency, warn them of the smoke and its potential dangers, and draw their attention to relief efforts for the fire victims. During the month of October the number of email subscribers experienced a 30 percent increase and the County sent out nearly 20,000 emails through GovDelivery.

Learn more about how GovDelivery has helped government organizations effectively communicate weather and emergency-related information to the public by visiting the links to the left. You can also contact us directly at 866-276-5583 or by email at info@govdelivery.com.

To learn more about how GovDelivery has helped these transit agencies effectively communicate with the public, visit their sites or get more information via the links on the left-hand menu. Or contact us directly at 866-276-5583 or by email at info@govdelivery.com.