Telephone-based mass notification systems are used by thousands of public safety agencies across the U.S. to warn residents about local emergencies, hazards and other threats.

Dixon officials have announced they have selected Hyper-Reach, a state-of-the-art mass emergency notification system, to help bring this same life-saving capability to the area.

The city of Dixon and the Dixon Rural Fire Protection District response area expect the service to be fully operational by the end of February.

The new emergency alert system will provide rapid notification of hazardous and urgent situations using a mix of telephone calls, text and email messages, and even TTY/TDD service for the hearing impaired.

The system sends thousands of these messages to geographically targeted households in seconds, and can simultaneously deliver them to an even broader audience via social media, Alexa-enabled smart speakers, browser notifications, as well as sending broadcast messages to most current mobile telephones (made since 2011) in an affected area by providing access to FEMA’s Wireless Emergency Alert system.

The city plans to use the service primarily for alerts about weather and environmental hazards, criminal activity, missing persons, emergency evacuations or shelter-in-place situations, and street closures.

Landline phones are automatically enrolled for community alerts, but weather alerts to landline phones and community and weather alerts to VoIP phones, mobile phones and email addresses are only included when people enroll.

Residents and people who work or reside in the city of Dixon or live within the Dixon Rural Fire Protection District are encouraged to enroll now using a county address at:

• English Signup Page – Hyper-Reach: Community Signup for Dixon/Dixon Rural FD, IL
• Spanish Signup Page – Hyper-Reach: Community Signup for Dixon/Dixon Rural FD, IL
• Call or text 815-456-8008 to sign up for alerts

Residents can get emergency alerts via their Alexa-enabled smart speakers by saying “Alexa, enable Hyper-Reach” and following the Alexa-provided instructions.

Residents can also download the Hyper-Reach Anywhere app on their smartphones. Hyper-Reach Anywhere is a free smartphone app that allows individual residents to manage and monitor the alerts they receive for their home, office and other addresses they care about, such as those of elderly relatives or friends.