COLORADO SPRINGS — The city of Colorado Springs began its citywide emergency preparedness campaign on Monday with "COS Ready", a one-stop shop for what community members need to know before disaster strikes.
"Colorado Springs is going to be better prepared for any kind of emergency based on this system," said Fire Chief Randy Royal with the Colorado Springs Fire Department.
The city has laid out a 1-2-3 checklist for people to be more prepared in the event that an evacuation is needed.
“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 easy 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.
While Peak Alerts continues servicing El Paso and Teller County, COS Ready's zones will only serve the city limits of Colorado Springs.
COS Ready is a collaboration between the Colorado Springs Fire Department, Colorado Springs Police Department, and the Pikes Peak Regional Office of Emergency Management.
The contract with the company running COS Ready costs $74,380 which is split evenly between CSFD and CSPD. The contract runs through March 2023 and optional renewals are priced at $55,785.
Additional preparedness information is at:
ColoradoSprings.gov/Ready or ColoradoSprings.gov/Listo
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