The city of North Myrtle Beach will soon launch a service that will send text messages and e-mail alerts to its residents and visitors about evacuations, traffic congestions, and accidents.
City officials expect to have the free service, Nixle to launch at the end of August.
"These messages can be anything to the community from an emergency alert down to a neighborhood watch we are able to get this information to people very quickly more than five hundred people can be reached in a second," said the city’s public information officer Nicole Aiello.
Aiello explained that the final decision came after some residents including those at Barefoot Landing raised concerns about having a better emergency alert system through the city.
Barefoot landing was one area where April’s wildfires destroyed dozens of homes and burned more than 20 thousand acres near highways 31 and 90.
“I think if we had a reliable method of waking us up through a cell phone or some other method earlier than that, we wouldn't have had to panic and literally run out,” said Barefoot resident Peter Campbell whose backyard burned in wildfires,” the reverse 911 was something that simply doesn't work after the fire, this seems to be something that would work and absolutely I would have it."
Subscribers can log on to Nixle.com, fill out the online form and chose a number of alerts to be sent as a text messages or an email. Anyone with the service will receive messages about mandatory hurricane evacuations, road closures, traffic crashes or natural disaster emergencies.
Aiello said if any resident or visitor does not have an internet connection they can come to city or to the city’s public safety office and get help signing up.
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