Reverse 911

Did you receive a robocall from the city of Richardson today on your cell phone? If you did, chances are you registered your cell phone with the city's Reverse 911 service.

After the jump, what Reverse 911 is all about.

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According to the city's website:

"The City of Richardson has implemented a Community Emergency Notification System, which is meant to notify citizens during certain types of emergencies. The system being used is called Reverse 911®. It allows the City to rapidly notify residents and businesses by telephone. In the event of an emergency, an operator using the system can identify the affected neighborhood or region of the city and record a message that describes the situation. The System can make approximately 1,900 calls per hour. Therefore, the system is used during emergencies which have a long warning time or are targeted to very specific areas of the city."

I got my call at an inopportune time. I stepped out of the meeting I was in to take the call. I was mildly irritated to learn that it was a test call of the Reverse 911 system. After reflection, I decided that Reverse 911 was still worthwhile, even if I did have to put up with monthly test calls, like the monthly tests of the sirens (first Wednesday at noon) that I always forget about until I'm startled by the wail of the sirens each month. But, after checking the city's website, I learn that the city promises to run these Reverse 911 tests only once a year. The tests are scheduled quarterly by quadrant:

2010 Testing Schedule:
January 6, 2010 - Quadrant 1
April 7, 2010 - Quadrant 2
July 7, 2010 - Quadrant 3
October 6, 2010 - Quadrant 4

For this first test, Quadrants 1 and 2 were combined. So, if you didn't get your call, check which quadrant you live in. Your call might be coming in July or October. If you are a careful reader (or maybe just a nit-picking, anal-retentive, obsessive-compulsive hypercritic ... like me) you might have noticed that the schedule calls for the test to occur on April 7 and today is April 8. What gives? The city doesn't say, directly, but maybe the delay is due to this detail in the fine print.

"The System can make approximately 1,900 calls per hour. Therefore, the system is used during emergencies which have a long warning time or are targeted to very specific areas of the city."

At 1900 calls per hour and two quadrants to cover, maybe my cell phone happened to fall near the end of the list and it took 24 hours to get around to calling me. Or maybe the city was late in starting the calls. In any case, my call came a day late. That's probably an indication that this system is not going to be very useful for real emergencies, like tornadoes or chemical spills or rampaging escaped convicts or the imminent destruction of all life and liberty in Richardson by our out-of-control, power-mad city council*. But you might still want to sign up anyway. If nothing else, it'll give you something to blog about on an otherwise quiet day.

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* Don't expect to be warned by the city about this latter threat. Instead, I suggest subscribing to an RSS feed of some local blogs, but be warned. You'll be flooded with alerts. Some of them see danger lurking behind every tree. Literally.