• If you had already subscribed to Palo Alto's CANs system, your contact information was automatically transferred to AlertSCC.
• If you register for AlertSCC, now you can receive Palo Alto-specific and county-wide emergency notifications that impact our area.

SIGN UP NOW!

Why sign up?

• It ensures that you get emergency alerts about critical and timely safety information for our community in the event of widespread emergencies.
• It's easy to sign up and update your contact information.
• Your account is now password protected.
• All contact information is confidential.

The BlackboardConnect-CTY service allows authorized city and county officials to send and track personalized voice messages to thousands of residents, businesses, and local officials in just minutes, through a single announcement. The service requires no additional hardware; it can be activated by City personnel from any computer with Internet access or by telephone, ensuring that officials can send vital messages from wherever they are located. The City also can track numbers that were reached with a report on the results of outgoing messages.

Examples of notifications include:  disaster information, crime bulletins, power outages, and other related urgent or time-sensitive information.  

The City of Palo Alto strongly urges all residents and businesses to register their contact information into the secure BlackboardConnect-CTY database to make sure they are ready to receive important information from the City at all times. This contact list cannot be sold, leased, shared, or rented personally identifiable information (names, addresses, phone numbers, etc.) to any companies or persons outside of NTI. The information will be accessed by the City of Palo Alto and the County of Santa Clara only for purposes of community alerts and notification. 

The 9-1-1 database of all landline phones in the county is also automatically uploaded to the system and updated monthly. Primary residential and business phones in Palo Alto are also automatically included in the system. However, there is a chance the number is outdated or incorrect, or a resident may prefer to receive notifications through another method (email, text message, cell or a work number). 

Residents can opt-in to provide complete information (up to three phone numbers and two e-mail addresses) by visiting the City of Palo Alto Website (http://www.cityofpaloalto.org), going to the "Other Resources" list at the bottom right and clicking “SIGN UP NOW " to enter their information into the secure database.  For those without residential Internet access, they can access the system on computers at local libraries.  Residents with call blocking services can make sure to receive the city's time-sensitive alerts by adding 650-329-2498 to their approved number list. 

The BlackboardConnect-CTY system can store the individual contact information as separate records, even if they have the same address. Each record will have different contact information, and in the case that there are redundant phone numbers (i.e. same home phone) the system will only call that number once. Each resident in the same household can sign up via the web portal, enter in the same address and, in some cases, the same last name. If the last name and address fields are identical, the primary phone fields will need to be different in order for the record to be accepted. Otherwise the system will see this as a duplicate record and prohibit registration of the contact.

For more information on Alert SCC, contact charles.cullen@cityofpaloalto.org