“When hurricanes strike, communication between emergency managers, first responders, search and rescue teams, and the general population remains vital to saving lives,” said Brian Toolan, Head of Government Strategy at Everbridge. “Our team of critical event management experts stands dedicated to providing our customers with the right tools, best practices and functionality to ensure preparedness during the hurricane season, and to always maximize response and safety efforts.”

With an emphasis on lessons learned from 2020 – during which 30 named storms resulted in more than $51 billion in economic losses – the Everbridge Customer Success team released new critical event management and emergency messaging recommendations, guidelines and tips that organisations should incorporate into their hurricane readiness and preparedness plans. Levering the Everbridge Platform, cities, counties and states across the U.S. are able to follow best practices for effectively communicating with citizens during a crisis.

During the 2020 Atlantic hurricane season – further complicated by the Covid-19 pandemic – many communities along the eastern seaboard and Gulf Coast utilized the Everbridge platform to communicate critical safety information to residents and employees.

“We have a mission to ensure public safety, community awareness and emergency response,” said Francis Xavier Suarez, Mayor of Miami, Florida. “To uphold this commitment, we need to reach our residents as quickly and reliably as possible. Everbridge helps the city of Miami to ensure citizens and businesses have access to real-time public information when seconds count. We are well-prepared to keep our population informed leading up to, during, and beyond hurricane season.”

To bolster its ongoing hurricane preparedness efforts, the Florida Division of Emergency Management (FDEM) uses Everbridge to power Alert Florida, distributing critical information to residents, businesses and visitors across the state. Interviews with six Florida counties, as well as the city of Miami, document best practices for ensuring hurricane readiness, the benefits of mutual aid assistance across counties, coordinating safe evacuations for all residents, as well as the many use cases for a scalable mass notification platform.