Overview

Each county has an alert system used to notify residents of critical events. You sign up on them with your email and cell phone. You tell it which areas and what types of events you are interested in, which will range from disasters to closed roads to hungry mountain lions.  Then it will push notifications to you (reverse 911), as well as sending text messages and emails. While a super critical system, it is not reliable.  In a large scale event, messages are often delayed, or not sent to right area, so some people are not notified at all, or others get spurious notifications. This is why it's critical to supplement this with monitoring local mailing lists to make sure everyone is aligned.


San Mateo County: SMC Alert

SMC ALERT is used by San Mateo County Office of Emergency Services (OES).  SMC ALERT is used to immediately contact you during urgent or emergency situations with useful information and updates by sending text messages, push notifications to your cell phones, and email capable devices. It is highly tunable to neighborhoods of interest as well as kinds of alerts you want to get.

Sign up at https://cmo.smcgov.org/smc-alert. 

If you have received Community Emergency Response Training (CERT) in San Mateo County and you have been sworn-in, and thus are eligible for Disaster Service Worker (DSW) insurance, you may be activated during an emergency through the SMC Alert system.

Even though the South Skyline Area is comprised of three different counties, the South Skyline CERT group is also activated by using SMC ALERT in emergencies. 

Some SMC Alerts to specific groups have an administrator who manages the alerts for that group. CERT activation, including the new South Skyline CERT Group, require you to be signed up for SMC alerts and also give the group administrator your permission to be added to the South Skyline CERT. For information on how to join the South Skyline SMC Alert group, send an email to info@ssepo.org.

​Santa Clara County - Alert SCC 
AlertSCC is the alert system used in Santa Clara County.  It is similar to the San Mateo system. Sign up at www.sccgov.org/sites/alertscc

Santa Cruz County - Code Red 
Code Red is the reverse 9-1-1 alert system used in Santa Cruz County.  Go to www.scr911.org to sign up.

FireDispatch.com
FireDispatch.com publishes live fire department emergencies as they are happening – in real-time, unedited and long before they become “news”.  FireDispatch.com combines the latest web technologies including streaming audio and video, digital images and dynamic mapping to virtually put you on scene with the firefighters.  Live dispatch status is available for all of San Mateo County and for Santa Cruz County.
 including streaming audio and video, digital images and dynamic mapping to virtually put you on scene with the firefighters.  Live dispatch status is available for all of San Mateo County and for Santa Cruz County.
 

County Alerts and Notifications