Reverse 911 Notifications In Oak Forest Replaced With New System

OAK FOREST, IL — Oak Forest officials have a new way of reaching residents during an emergency.

In the past, the City of Oak Forest reached out to citizens via reverse 911 calls. This has changed to a new system called Everbridge, city officials said in a news release Monday.

The new Everbridge system replaces Reverse 911 as a means to notify citizens. Fifty-four percent of U.S. households rely entirely on cell phones instead of landline telephones, city officials said. Critical situations like severe weather and criminal activity require information to be shared quickly and effectively with residents.

"It is important that we alert everyone in an emergency whether they choose to receive information via SMS Text, Facebook, smartphone or landline," city officials said.

Everbridge helps the City of Oak Forest send messages out to the entire town or certain areas of the town where a particular emergency is taking place, such as a water main break.

"You will have access to make future modifications to your account when needed such as change of phone number, email, and physical address," city officials said. "If you ever move and do not want any notifications from the City of Oak Forest, you have the ability to delete your account."

To sign-up and create an Everbridge account, click on this link.

Make sure you enter a cell phone number for voice and text, landline phone number for voice, email address for notifications as well as home address. Entering your home address helps the City of Oak Forest send messages to only certain areas of the town that a particular emergency is taking place.

According to the city, the Everbridge system will help "keep residents informed with the right message, in the right language at the right time during critical events."