Today is National First Responders Day. What a great day to say how much we appreciate all the first responders who dedicate their lives to keep our communities safe. 2020 has been especially challenging, and we are so grateful for all you do. Thank you!

CALL IF YOU CAN, TEXT IF YOU CAN'T... did you know you can text 911 to reach emergency responders in the tri-county area? Texting to 9-1-1 can be a benefit to those who are hearing impaired or in a situation where calling may put them at a greater risk such as domestic violence, while hiding from an intruder, or in a vehicle being driven by a drunk driver.

Texting 9-1-1 should be used as a last resort as calling 9-1-1 is faster; text messages can take longer to receive and may come in out of sequence. Location accuracy isn’t always as good as calling and, if you’re roaming or the text can’t get through, it will bounce back with a message saying “call 9-1-1."

Currently there are no language translation services available; all text messages to 9-1-1 must be in English using the Latin (regular) character set. The text messages should not include acronyms, emojis, or photos and they cannot be sent as a group message.

If you are deaf, hard of hearing or speech disabled and the service is unavailable, use a teletypewriter or TTY if available.

Get alerted about emergencies and other important community news by signing up for our Emergency Alert Program. This system enables us to provide you with critical information quickly in a variety of situations, such as severe weather, unexpected road closures, missing persons and evacuations of buildings or neighborhoods.

You will receive time-sensitive messages wherever you specify, such as your home, mobile or business phones, email address, text messages and more. You pick where, you pick how. Sign up or change your preferences at alertmontereycounty.org.

Using this same system, you can text 93940 to 888777 for Monterey Police and Fire specific updates.

CERV (Community Emergency Response Volunteers) Disaster Preparation Contest - Do you want to be better prepared for the next emergency to hit Monterey? Do you want to score some valuable disaster preparation resources with very little effort? Then you should enter the CERV Disaster Preparedness Contest! All you have to do is check out a new, simple and straightforward disaster preparation guide, and fill out our brief survey when you're finished. You become immediately eligible for one of five grand prizes consisting of emergency resources worth over $150. *Three of the prizes will be awarded on merit, two will be awarded through a random drawing.*

Here's how to enter:

STEP ONE: Check out the new, simple and straightforward disaster preparation guide - It’s available in seven different languages and it’s designed to provide you with a lot of useful information, in plain language, in a minimum number of pages. You can download it for free.

STEP TWO: Complete the brief CERV survey by November 30, 2020. - This enables you to weigh in on what you found useful and what improvements could be made.

STEP THREE: Monitor your email/phone after the close of the survey to see if you were one of five lucky grand prize winners.

Get all the details on the CERV website.

Learn more about local emergency preparedness on the City of Monterey website:

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