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Auckland City Council has created a handy tool around flood risks. There are four flood categories Flood Plains Flood Prone Areas Overland Flow Paths Coastal inundation Check out the map at https://bit.ly/3SmGUUU There is a description of eachand you can zoom in on the map for your street by the looks. Knowing the risks can keep you safer.
0 Safety Before, During and After Thunderstorms
Severe Thunderstorms need to be taken seriously so we have made these safety pointers. These can last a short duration or long duration like the Auckland floods of 2023 What comes with them? Hail Damaging winds Tornadoes Flooding Slips Torrential rain Power cuts Fallen trees. - Take shelter, preferably indoors away from windows;- Avoid sheltering under trees, if outside;- Get back to land, if outdoors on the water;- Move cars under cover or away from trees;- Secure any loose objects around your property;- Check that drains and gutters are clear;- Be ready to slow down or stop, if driving.- Expect flash flooding During and after the storm, you should also:- Beware of fallen trees and power lines;- Avoid streams and drains as you may be swept away in flash flooding.- If you feel in danger or damage is occurring and you feel you should call 111, don't hesitate. Lert Info gathers information from hundreds of sources and generates alerts , many exclusive to Lert Info. These have saved lives over the years. To be included in our Alert Network Click Here
0 Tips and Information to Help You Get Through an Emergency event
FENZ has compiled a list of things to help you prepare during a weather event situation - Click here
In emergencies like the recent destructive storms, information is key to your safety. Civil Defence has a great service with their Mobile Emergency Alerts, but unfortunately there are some drawbacks : From Their Tweet Feb 26th 2023" - Didn’t get an Emergency Mobile Alert on your phone? - Emergency Mobile Alerts will only be sent when there is a serious threat to life, health or property. These are broadcast to affected areas, not specific phones. Other reasons may be: Your phone isn’t on our list of capable makes and models: getready.govt.nz/.../emergency.… Your phone needs updating Your phone is off, You're in flight mode, or Your out of cellular coverage. Lert Info alerts reach you reliably: On all phones, 99% of the time. If you lose signal, alerts will get through when you get signal. When you recharge your phone after a flat battery, You cancel flight mode, You drive into an area with signal, You switch your phone on. only people who want our alerts will get them, for their chosen suburb, town or region. Civil Defence creates original alerts. Lert Info creates original alerts too, eg we were the first to alert Auckland subscribers thunderstorms had stalled and to expect issues, however we also scour 100's of sources and have thousand of subscribers as our eyes and ears. We then personally send the information to you if your registered (free). Alerts could be anything, weather, a city fire with toxic smoke, life threatening health alerts like recalled foods, toxic shellfish, plus a whole lot more. - Full list of alerts Click Here We advise you to have multiple sources but please don't rely on just Facebook. It risks your safety because of it's unreliability. Many of the alerts on this map (Noon Feb 27th 2023) have not appeared anywhere on Facebook. To start getting your own alerts long before others do just FREE register at www.lert.info
0 New Services Keep Subscribers Much Safer
We can officially call the polar blast event finished (Except for the clean-up). This has been our most intense weather event ever, with 289 alerts being sent in just 5 days. Exclusive Alerts Trial a Total Success During the 5 days, we sent 61 exclusive alerts. Many were a direct result of information from members. A huge thank you to the many contributors, especially when the Metservice radar stopped working during a severe thunderstorm after a lightning strike. One of our exclusive alerts was for very big coastal waves and swells. We sent alerts 5 days before official warnings. Exclusive alerts are created using common sense, weather models, member contributions and other information . On site Reports From Members - Another Complete Success We can now requested updates from members to get a far better idea of what was happening. This was so successful it's now an important part of our service, enabling even better service for members. Time Critical Alerts (TCA) With rapidly moving thunderstorms we had during the June 2022 polar blast, Time Critical Alerts were sent to members, giving 5 to 15 minutes heads up that damaging thunderstorms were about to hit. By monitoring weather radar, and getting member reports from precise locations, we can now tell members when a severe thunderstorms was about to hit. Warnings of 5-15minutes are enough to do a couple of outside things or even tell the kids what's coming. The TCA's only work using our TXT alerts however. People read Txt immediately but emails not so (see graph) . During the damaging thunderstorms and tornadoes we sent over 20 TCAs for all parts of the country. The graph clearly shows in the first 20 mins, ONLY 27% of people open an email. Our txt could literally be a life saver . Facebook and Twitter Unfit For Alerting Facebook and Twitter don't meet our standards so we no longer send alerts through them. They can't be customised to an individuals needs. The recognised standard for alerting these days is Push Alerts. Lert Info is undeniably the most advanced service of it's kind in the world from what we have seen. Road Alerts were hugely popular and we saw a heap of new subscribers. Click Here Again, we sent information no one else had including maps that till now weren't possible on our text service. One such alert was this closure because of a slip . By including the map it was a lot easier to follow detour instructions. We can even include distances. Customised Personal Emergency alerts www.lert.info Txt Road alerts www.road.lert.info
0 What Are Time Critical, Exclusive Alerts?
The June 2022 Polar blast was one for the record books A spoke person for the Metservice described the storm as an extreme event, with very deep snow in places, and more than 111,000 lightning strikes. The polar system came in several waves and when thunderstorms were approaching, Lert Info sent TCAs (time critical alerts). Here we see a line of thunderstorms travelling west to east. People to the east were warned many minutes before it hit. The appreciation from subscribers was huge. Snow was a major issue with many roads closed. We sent 20 or so proactive alerts ( looking ahead in time and using common sense) . People told us they were much appreciated. With SH8 Lindis Pass, Lert sent a heads up things were turning to custard very fast. This warning was more than 30 minutes before official sources. Hopefully it stopped some people travelling and getting trapped. Lert info is designed specifically for everyone wanting to be far better informed and safer. Anyone can receive free alerts at www.lert.info . For NZ's only public Txt road alert service go to www.road.lert.info Thisis perfect for long distance travellers - commercial drivers, truckies, couriers etc.
0 New Events Scale Helps You Assess Events.
Every event we send alerts for can now be signaled as to it's intensity and significance. After 12 years of operation we thought it might help you if a "picture " could give you a better appreciation of different events. We have thousand of sources of information but that should make it easier for us to show how an event will unfold. By mentioning other events you will have a point of comparison. For email or txt alerts - www.lert.info Time critical alerts like flash floods, severe thunderstorms, evacuations etc only work if you have the Txt service. It only cost 1/2 a bag of lollies per month.
0 Improved Tool Improves Speed and Accuracy
For several years we have used pre defined map areas for regions. This assures consistency across all staff when defining areas. This is the Canterbury Plains and Foothills map This map is for just Lyttleton. By doing the same for over 100 towns and settlements, the error rate to zero. This is part of our preparation for our forthcoming app which will be offered to susbcribers first. Release date still unknown. Free Personal emergency alerts - Click here NZ's Only National Txt road alert service - Click here
0 Rely on Facebook for Information... At Your Risk
Facebook used to be a wonderful tool many years ago, but today it’s a totally different product. People mistakenly believe they see every post from every page they follow, but they don’t. Whether you see a post is over to the Facebook Computer. When it comes to getting safety information to you in real time, we want you to have the best, and push alerts are the only solution. The following graph shows how long it took for people to see a specific Facebook post on Sunday Oct 17th/18th. Our exclusive push alerts reach you in real time, NOT up to a day later. While reasonable as a social connecter, Facebook it is definitely substandard for emergency alerting. If you rely on it for emergency alerts you could be putting you and your family's safety at risk. With Facebook's drive for revenue, ALL business pages are now expected to buy advertising if they want reach ( Reach is a measure of people that stop on a post for 3 seconds). This includes Civil Defence, Metservice, Lert Info, Councils, Fire, Police and every other business page. None are boosting their posts to get to as many people as possible as it's too tricky to do in a fast flowing emergency. How does this affect you? It risks your safety. There are several key things that make a post go really well – comments, shares, likes, the correct images and how long people stay on a post. You can see the variation across our recent posts. The top post was after 24hrs. ( If print is too small in following table, turn your phone sideways) Lert info has a following of 38,000 yet we've only reached 50% of our followers twice. You will never know when you miss out, and if you do see a post, how old is it? Emergency alerts are very time sensitive, the obvious solution is real time push alerts. We can get Civil defence, weather, fire, Police and other alerts to you even before they do. There is a good chance you may not see their posts in time, if at all. What is the solution? Push alerts! Over the last 9yrs Lert Info has continually developed NZ's only a dedicated push alert service. It covers all eventualities, not just road or weather or Civil Defence, but anything. Our "Lerts " are sent to subscribers immediately . Lert Info is for everyone. You'll can get alerts pretty much immediately by Txt . We also have a free email service for people that can’t afford a couple of dollars for Txt’s, but it has the usual email tradeoffs. Still it's better than nothing. Register at www.lert.info before we send the next alert for your area. Almost every place in New Zealand has received an alert in the last week. Make "Lert" a key part of your emergency information kit. You should have have several sources anyway.
0 Earthquake caused tsunami can strike any time
New Zealand is vulnerable to tsunami effects from various sources in the Pacific Ring Of Fire. There will be no warning of the quake that causes these, but depending on the source location there can be anything from 30mins to several hours lead time. This Timeline Video illustrates occassions when we have been affected. Sometimes the results is just tidal surges, others have seen small tsunami . Dates we have been affected 1906, 1923 (2), 1946, 1953, 1960 (massive source quake) 1964, 1965, 2001, 2005, 2010, 2011, 2012 Lert Info will be here, when one does occur, to keep you updated in real time just as we did with the recent Kermadec tsunami risk. We have access to many information sources and can get additional information to you that could save your life.
0 Effective Alerting is about speed and reliability.
When it comes to personal safety and relevant information, you need and expect alerts as soon as possible, right? The ONLY effective way to get this information to you is with push alerts. The sooner you know, the sooner you can take action for you and our family's safety. Covid alert sent Wed 26th. Speed is vital here. Most Txt users would have read this in the first 5 mins. Email users may not have read it for several hours. That could have consequences of transmission of the disease if someone is infected. From evacuations and Covid 19 alerts, poisonous food recalls and storms, Lert Info is the only service of it's kind in New Zealand There are differences though in how alerts are delivered. Currently we ONLY use email or Txt. Soon we will have an app. The difference will be like moving from a Mini to a Rolls Royce The following images demonstrate the differences of various delivery methods. This shows the time it takes people to open an email. This show Facebook reach. Potential is 34,313 people. You can see clearly why we don't use Facebook, it's very unreliable. The FB algorithm determines who sees every post. Thousands of people never see each post (red). It could be you. We use Facebook for non critical information. Txt has an opening rate of 98% with most people opening them within 5 minutes. Emails are free, but there is a trade off of when you will read it. We include email alerts as a social service so anyone can have access. But for just $2/mth (a bag of sweets or 1/2 a coffee) you can have the best. To register go to www.lert.info
0 Txt Push Alerts Keep you Much Safer
Lert Info is NZ's only dedicated National alert service. It's quick to join, then just wait for us to send you alerts during storms, road closures food recalls and a whole lot more You can choose free emails, but if you want to see alerts immediately, Txt is the way to go. The above chart shows the effectiveness of delivery methods. Many people switch from email to Txt for more timely alert. Many alert have 15minutes warning and this is where TXT reigns supreme. Below shows a line of Severe Thunderstorms including likely tornadoes. We gave 15minutes warning to Kapiti residents as each wave of severe thunderstorms rolled through. They had already had one tornado. Email delays put you at risk and your family at risk. Have you noticed we seem to have many more tornadoes these days. Civil Defence stopped using email because of the delays but we keep it on as a social service. We often send alerts to over 100,000 people per day during full on events.. Register now. No one knows when the next emergency will happen. www.lert.info
0 You're information could save lives
People expect alerts ASAP, and rightly so. Now you can play a vital role. PROBLEM: Official sources have protocols to follow which can delay information by 45mins or more. We have experienced this first hand. THE FIX: Enable the people to send reports directly to us. SOLUTION: Lert Info Contact Us form You can be our eyes and ears. Whenever you see something, tell us first, unless it's a Phone 111 situation. Just setup the Contact Us page on your phone, then all you will have to do is tap the icon fill in the details and press send. We will have your information immediately and will act on it as needed. Follow these three steps 1/ Click the Contact us Link above to get following screen. 2/ Tap your screens hamburger/menu and a similar dropdown should appear as follows. Select "add to homescreen" & give it a name you like. We've used "Lert Info Send Message" 3/ Your screen will now have an icon like the "Lert Info send message" one. 4/ To send us a message all you need do is tap the icon, write the messages and send to us. The first message you send you may need to include your email and phone, sunsequently it should populate automatically. We will need your location and details. No use to just say there has been a crash. We need basic info - location, road open or closed etc. Flooding for example - where, status - Just starting, depth....... You don't need to be a subscriber to contact us, but if you want to get alerts just go to Sign Up We're here to help Kiwis
0 Alerts Are Best When Community Sourced
Lert Info is about community and keeping people within those communities safer and better informed. Although we have hundreds of official sources, the best information comes from YOU,our community. It's faster than most official sources It's incredibly accurate Can be updated in real time We can ask for information in real time during events Enables us to get accurate real time alerts to other members of the Lert community A classic example was when a major hail storm endangered people from Timaru to Christchurch in December 2019. We issued an alert to subscribers over 30 mins before Metservice issued a severe thunderstorm warning. By getting updates from dozens of people we were then able to forewarn those in line of the storm over the whole day. We were the only service to do so. Fortunately no one was severely injured but thousands of cars needed extensive panel beating and some gutters and roofs were damaged. You can play a crucial part by contacting us on Facebook messenger or emailing info@lert.info. We can then send alerts to subscribers. ( subscribe for free alerts.) Together we can keep each other safer.
Increasingly, email is becoming tricky to use. Spam filters, blockers, lag time, servers down etc. etc. let alone the average 60mins plus it takes for someone to open their email. It doesn't bode well if there is an emergency. We found this excellent video which explains The Email Cycle . Down the track. we envisage dropping the email only service as it's just getting so tricky to use. Civil Defence regions have dropped it, but we have thousands and thousands of people to consider and so perseveared for the last two years. The replacement will be so much better.
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It’s arguably NZ’s most comprehensive and advanced alert service.
We have our own Meteorological technician, our own programmers and our own networker who are passionate that you have the best service
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