Main Menu

Pinellas Offers New Way to Get Urgent Information

Alert Pinellas | Alert Pinellas Logo | Emergency

The county’s Alert Pinellas has partnered with Nextdoor to get out emergency information.

PINELLAS COUNTY – When there’s a threat of severe weather, extreme neighborhood flooding or if a boil water notice is issued – getting the word out to the impacted communities comes with an urgency that Pinellas County is ready to meet.

Administered by Pinellas County Emergency Management, Alert Pinellas is a free community notification service that officials are actively using to keep residents in the know. It is available for residents to sign up for emergency emails, texts or phone calls. Residents can sign up at pinellascounty.org and are advised to select  “Receive weather warnings” option.

As the county strives to reach more people through various social media channels, it has recently partnered with Nextdoor, a private social network for neighborhoods which promises to improve countywide and neighbor-to-neighbor communication.  Integration with Nextdoor will enable Pinellas County Emergency Management to build stronger, safer, and more prepared communities with the help of Pinellas County residents.

“Joining Nextdoor is another way to further our efforts in making Pinellas County an even greater place to live,” said Sally Bishop, director of Pinellas County Emergency Management. “Giving residents more avenues to easily and effectively connect with emergency management and each other about the things that matter most to their communities will create safer, stronger places to call home.”

Already, Nextdoor has proven to be an essential and well-adopted tool for Pinellas County residents. Close to 23,000 Pinellas County residents are using Nextdoor. More than 300 neighborhoods, representing about 55 percent of the county, have started Nextdoor websites.

With Nextdoor, Pinellas County residents can create private neighborhood websites to share information, including neighborhood emergency preparedness, public safety issues, community events and activities, local services and even lost pets.

Pinellas County Emergency Management will be able to post information such as important news, emergency notifications and urgent alerts to Nextdoor websites within the county.  Each Pinellas County neighborhood has their own private Nextdoor neighborhood website, accessible only to residents of that neighborhood. Neighborhoods establish and self-manage their own Nextdoor website and emergency management will not be able to access residents’ websites, contact information, or content. All members must verify that they live within the neighborhood before joining Nextdoor. Information shared on Nextdoor is password protected and cannot be accessed by Google or other search engines.

Those interested in joining their neighborhood’s Nextdoor website can go to nextdoor.com and enter their address.

Pinellas County | Nextdoor | Alert Pinellas | Neighborhood News | TB Reporter

#PinellasCounty #Nextdoor #AlertPinellas #NeighborhoodNews #TBReporter