Politics & Government

Register to Receive Emergency Alerts From Your Town

Caldwell towns using cell phones, texts and more to communicate with residents during emergencies.

More than a month after Sandy turned out the lights, and the television, laptops, etc., local officials are reminding residents about the value of being registered for emergency notifications.

Caldwell, North Caldwell and West Caldwell are all using systems which allow towns to communicate with residents, business owners and others by landlines and cell phones, as well as email and text.

In North Caldwell, the mayor and police department turned numerous times to its Nixle system to send email and text alerts to residents after Superstorm Sandy left 100 percent of the borough without power.

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Dozens of messages provided information about road and school closures, hurricane safety tips, the opening of a warming center at the firehouse and more.

North Caldwell resident Beverly Salerno praised the use of Nixle at a recent council meeting.

Find out what's happening in Caldwellswith free, real-time updates from Patch.

“I am one person who was very, very happy for Nixle,” Salerno said. “I needed those reports.”

Anyone can sign up using a simple web form on the North Caldwell website.

West Caldwell signed up for a different system, SwiftReach Networks’ Swift911, earlier this year. West Caldwell’s SwiftReach was populated with landline phone numbers as a default, but residents are encouraged to add their cell phones and emails to the database.

The township’s mayor, Joseph Tempesta, said that SwiftReach was invaluable in the days following the Oct. 29 storm. Tempesta left numerous messages on residents’ home and cell phones, which were also sent by email and text to registered users.

The mayor said the beauty of the system is that messages can be sent from anywhere.

“You could be in Hawaii,” he said.

A registration form is available on the township’s website.

Caldwell also began using Nixle earlier this year. A registration form which can be mailed, emailed or faxed back to the borough is available online.


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