Last week, on Thursday, Paterson announced a new citizen notification system powered by Everbridge, a firm that provides interactive communication and mass notification solutions, that would alert residents of emergencies and events in their neighborhoods.

During the last two major storms, Hurricane Irene and Hurricane Sandy, Paterson lacked the infrastructure for communicating with residents; during Sandy there were video messages issued by the council president and the mayor which were broadcasted on a channel only available to cable television customers — the obvious problem here is not every Patersonian is hooked up to Cablevision. However, that seems to be changing with this new alert system, where just about any citizen is able to sign up to receive emergency alerts.

According to the city, residents will be able to, “receive time-sensitive messages wherever you specify, such as your home, cell, or business phone, email, text messages.”

The city is encouraging residents to sign up into the notification system.