With much stricter regulations, municipalities are responsible for implementing a robust emergency plan for their communities. An emergency mass notification system is an efficient tool to fulfill this task.
In Chile, where natural and social events have set the tone over the years, emergency and disaster preparedness is a vital responsibility. This task is shared among several public and private institutions, notably municipalities.
For them, Law 21,364 changed the rules of the game and set a stricter regulatory framework for emergency management in Article 28, on the Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction Plan, and Article 32, on Municipal Emergency Plans.
Since the law took effect, local authorities have had to develop a new plan to identify risks, implement action protocols and coordinate with other agencies in the country, and to allocate resources to deal with disasters.
To meet these legal requirements and support their contingency plans, there are technology tools that make management more efficient. These include emergency mass notification systems such as VIPER MASS, which enables fast, effective communication with specific people, teams or large groups.
Advantages of VIPER MASS for emergency management
- Immediacy: the platform lets us send an instant alert when we need to report a critical situation, ensuring the message reaches the right person at the right time.
- Reach and targeting: recipients could be some of the municipal staff, only the disaster management team or a large number of residents, and the message can be targeted and customized for each group, depending on what we want to tell each one.
- Multichannel: the tool can use several channels, such as WhatsApp, SMS, email, phone calls or app push notifications, and the most effective channel for each person can be set in advance.
- Accurate information: it also makes it possible to provide accurate information about emergencies, safety instructions, status updates and other relevant details to protect the community.
- Resource efficiency: by automating processes, we save time and can assign municipal staff to crisis management or other tasks.
A system like this will only deliver good results if the municipality has proper planning, smooth coordination with other organizations and a properly trained team. In this respect, VIPER speeds up the work, is quick to implement, requires no special equipment and its intuitive design makes administration simple.
We don’t know when we will face the next earthquake, fire or windstorm, but whatever the case, a municipality cannot improvise and must be prepared with a tailor-made strategy and the resources needed to carry it out. What matters most is always keeping residents safe.