TACLOBAN CITY — Tacloban city government launched a city-wide alert system for delivering emergency alerts and warning to the public.
Dubbed “Community Climate Guide and Response (CCGR)”, this project is a centralized pre-disaster alert system that monitors and operates 24/7.
The CCGR text alert system “offers text blasting advisories most ideal for DRRM and emergency situations through two major mobile networks in the Philippines — Globe and Smart,” according to a press release issued by the City Hall.
Among the critical information disseminated through text blasting include weather updates, classes, typhoon, flood, tsunami, evacuation centers by barangay, among others.
“The system also allows resident of Tacloban City to directly text selected offices during emergency situations, to include the City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office, Bureau if Fire, Tacloban City Police Office, and the Tacloban Rescue Unit,” it added.
The CCGR text alert system also include daily information needs like basic services and facts like flight schedules, banking services, hotels, movies, and transportation.
“The main advantage in using CCGR is that it is text-based. SMS can be used to send a message to a larger number of people at a time, either from a list of contacts or to all the users within a particular area at a given time,” says City Mayor Cristina Romualdez during the launching held last Friday (August 26).
“This service is called broadcasting and is used to contact residents of a local government unit to distribute news and other information to subscribers,” she said.
“Residents will always almost have their cellphones with them. The chances that residents will receive and read the message in the cellphone is very high compared to the internet, of other forms of broadcast communication,” she added.
(ELMER RECUERDO)
