Emergency Alerts and Notifications for the Village of Cloudcroft

​Recent events have understandably caused many of our newer citizens to inquire about how they will receive information related to a large scale emergency.  Large scale emergencies are those that will impact a large swath of the population or a significant portion of the geographical area.  Over the past several decades, the Village of Cloudcroft has developed a comprehensive strategy for alerting the population of an emergency within, and immediately surrounding, our boundaries.  
The group of specialized personnel within the Cloudcroft Fire Department responsible for emergency planning is our Emergency Management team.  This group has developed Emergency Operations Plans, Mitigation Plans, Communication Plans, etc , as well as coordinating with surrounding agency’s/entities/businesses, etc. for comprehensive Response Plans.   These plans are reviewed, updated and exercised periodically.  Included within these plans are the notification and alerting mechanisms for Cloudcroft.   They are as follows:
Emergency Alert Sirens:  Very loud audible sirens (sometimes referred to as air-raid or tornado sirens) are located throughout the Village and are only sounded for evacuation purposes.  These sirens are useful while outside your home or business but may be difficult to hear indoors.
Cellular phone alert:  A federal alerting system called IPAWS can be used to alert all cell phones within a geo-fenced boundary, created for the specific emergency.  We currently activate this tool through the State of New Mexico Emergency Operations Center.  https://www.fema.gov/emergency-managers/practitioners/integrated-public-alert-warning-system/public
Reverse 911:  Otero County has a robo-call feature which has the capability of calling all phone numbers which have been registered through the Otero County database.  We activate this tool through the Tularosa Basin Regional Dispatch Authority.   Feel free to register now at:  https://co.otero.nm.us/256/Reverse-911
Radio messaging:  Our local Emergency Alert System radio frequency is 97.9 FM.  When an emergency occurs which requires disseminating information in mass form, we use this radio station which is available locally and also on the internet.  https://www.rock97-9.com/   
Social Media:  The Cloudcroft Fire Department Facebook page will provide updates to local emergency’s and procedures to follow (as needed):  https://www.facebook.com/cloudcroftfiredept
Website:  The Cloudcroft Fire Department will post such things as burn permits, fire restrictions, and other longer term informational items on our website at:  https://www.cloudcroftfd.com/
Evacuation location:  Emergency’s are dynamic and we can’t predict where or how we will evacuate, but in a general sense, the location will most likely be to our East along US Hwy 82, in the Mayhill area or Artesia.  From there, you may be routed back to Ruidoso or Alamogordo. 
In addition to the regular testing, updates and enhancements made to the existing systems, the Cloudcroft Fire Department-Emergency Management team is in the process of implementing additional notification tools.  https://www.apparmor.com/  We are excited about these new capabilities and plan to debut them later this year.