Santa Cruz and San Benito Counties Select Genasys to Power Public Safety Alerts and Notifications
Genasys Protect(TM) Platform Helped to Safeguard Millions of California Residents & Visitors During January and March Atmospheric River Events
SAN DIEGO, April 26, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Genasys Inc. (NASDAQ: GNSS), the global leader in critical communications systems and solutions that help keep people safe, today announced Santa Cruz and San Benito counties have entered into new multi-year Genasys Protect software-as-a-service (SaaS) contracts. Genasys is providing public safety notification and evacuation management services for 30 California counties.
Santa Cruz County has actively used Genasys Protect's Zonehaven evacuation management since the CZU Complex Fire in 2020. In the first three months of this year, the county managed multiple evacuations from storm surges, river and urban flooding, debris flows, and road closure incidents. Hundreds of thousands of Californians accessed the Genasys AWARE site throughout the atmospheric river events to check the evacuation status of their neighborhoods and for other critical information.
"The extension of the Genasys Protect platform in Santa Cruz County is the result of the exceptional performance of our Zonehaven software and support team during the severe weather," said Richard Danforth, Chief Executive Officer, Genasys, Inc. "This SaaS contract further expands the county's use of the Genasys Protect platform to enhance the safety of its 270,000 residents and 3 million annual visitors. With Genasys, the contiguous counties of Santa Cruz, San Benito, and Monterey will be able to more efficiently coordinate emergency notifications and evacuation management during regional crises."
Sharing the benefits of Zonehaven, Lieutenant Nick Baldrige, Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Office, recounted, "With the atmospheric river storm on New Year's Day, we weren't expecting the level of flooding we received. However, we knew this event was going to be prolonged for multiple storms. So, we had to ask ourselves, 'How do we plan for the rest of the event?' During a lull before the next major system hit, we created scripts for every zone and crafted Zonehaven messaging that was readily available. During evacuations, we identified the zones that were being impacted, which allowed us to push messaging out quickly to the public using the Zonehaven AWARE app. Zonehaven allowed us to communicate with our community and get real-time information to the people who needed it."
Mr. Danforth continued, "Genasys Protect gives first responders and emergency management officials the combined power of multichannel alerting and evacuation management only available from Genasys. With more tools to pre-plan, collaborate, model, and execute multichannel public safety notifications, timely evacuations, and safer repopulations, the Genasys Protect platform is helping to save lives during floods, debris flows, landslides, wildfires, and other critical events in California and in other regions."
Paul Neyman, Vice President of SaaS Sales for Genasys, added, "County officials need an emergency management system capable of warning and informing the public through multiple outlets, including smartphone apps (like Waze), voice calls, social media, and public address systems. They also need a common operating picture to collaborate with each other, their sister agencies, federal emergency systems, related support agencies, and particularly the public. By providing both live polygons for Wireless Emergency Alerts, critical communications, and evacuation management, the Genasys Protect platform is the ideal solution for safeguarding residents and visitors during multi-hazard incidents. |
