Taking action for your safety: A new alert could save your life. Hillsborough County has launched a new system to send you messages during an emergency.
Remember back in August when the streets were more like rivers? Krista Jacobson sure does.
“It was really bad, it flooded all the way down this street I think it was the worst right here in the corner,” Jacobson said.
When the flooding hit, she had only lived in her South Tampa home for about six months and had no idea her neighborhood would be under water.
“We had never seen it flood that bad in Tampa at all,” Jacobson said.
Now, Hillsborough County will be able to send an electronic message during an emergency and help warn people.
“That will give people the ability to have an alert in the palm of their hands mobile devices they carry with them to be able to be notified no matter where they are,” Director of Emergency Management in Hillsborough County Preston Cook said.
Cook said you can tailor the alerts and make sure you find out when an emergency happens near a specific address.
“It could be where your child goes to school it could be your home address your parents address or even your spouse’s place of employment so it gives a lot of versatility for us to be aware if something is happening in a particular part of the county,” Cook said.
Signing up is free. Head to http://www.hillsboroughcounty.org/hcflalert and create an account, then choose which alerts you’d like to get and how.
The sign up is free, but make sure your phone plan doesn’t charge you for incoming messages.
