MIDLAND - What if you could know what all those sirens and lights were about before the four 'o'clock news? In a time when the crime seems to be rising, everyone is already on edge when there is commotion near their home. Now the city of Midland has teamed up with Everbridge, a website that makes it easy for authorities to get in contact with you when there is a potentially dangerous situation happening.
"Right now the main function we're using it for is emergencies, " Sara Bustilloz, the spokesperson for the City of Midland, said. "So if we have a wildfire, if we have a bomb threat and we have to evacuate an area or to just let people know if we're going to perform a drill in their area to not be concerned when they see that."
The City of Midland started using Everbridge about one year ago and have over 1000 members so far, but with the growing population, they're hoping to get the word out even more.
"Sometimes storms happen and our phones get flooded and we get phone calls about how we're prepared and we already are, so we want to let people know about what's going on out there," Bustilloz said.
The city is also looking to use the website for non-emergency situations such as garbage pickup days or community support for those who are able to volunteer.
When you sign up on the website you can choose how you want to be alerted, whether that be through your cell phone, landline, email, or even texting.
"It's just a really effective way to contact each other instead of the old fashioned calling tree, we can now reach everybody at once, so it's been great," Bustilloz said.
