The City of Colorado Springs has launched an emergency preparedness campaign called “COS Ready.” This campaign provides a series of actions focused on preparing for an emergency, including a 1-2-3 checklist for community members to improve their readiness.
“Continuously improving our emergency systems is critical to effectively serving our citizens,” said Mayor John Suthers. “We have adopted a new system that better organizes our evacuation zones, making our first responders better equipped and more prepared to serve our community. It is also a helpful tool for community members, which is why we’re asking everyone to take three simple steps so that every household, business, and organization can be ready for emergencies. That’s what we mean by COS Ready.”
COS Ready has three steps:
Step 1: Sign up for Alerts – Peak Alerts is a targeted phone notification system that tells community members what they need to know in an emergency.
Step 2: Know Your Zone – The city is now organized into more than 600 preidentified zones which helps first responders take decisive action in an incident. By knowing your zone, community members can be better informed when an emergency happens.
Step 3: Make a Plan – Before an emergency happens, you need to plan how to keep your family and pets safe, how to communicate with loved ones, and what items to have ready in case of an evacuation.
Starting Monday, COS Ready will be prominently featured on social, digital, and physical touchpoints throughout Colorado Springs. An online hub with the three steps and additional preparedness information is at ColoradoSprings.gov/Ready or ColoradoSprings.gov/Listo.
COS Ready is a collaboration of the Colorado Springs Fire Department, Colorado Springs Police Department, and the Pikes Peak Regional Office of Emergency ManagementThe City and County are consolidating their Offices of Emergency Management in an effort to optimize staff resources, establish a single point of contact during major incidences and enhance communication both during and after an event. The new office, the Pikes Peak Regional Office of Emergency Management (PPR-OEM) will support operations during a disaster or emergency in El Paso County and Colorado Springs.Because disaster knows no jurisdictional boundaries, we can most efficiently prepare for an emergency and respond to one by coordinating our efforts on a regional basis. The establishment of the PPR-OEM will allow the county and the city to more effectively coordinate and assist first responders in an emergency as well as preparing the government and the community for a disaster., all bringing a robust offering of community engagement tools to the campaign. Colorado Springs Utilities also supports COS Ready, encouraging its customers to be prepared.