Ojai Valley OK Drill Wednesday, Sept. 17

The Ventura County Sheriff’s Office of Emergency Services will be participating in the Ojai Valley OK Drill on September 17th by launching a test Reverse 911 call to residents in the Ojai Valley.

The Reverse 911 system has been used several times in the last year to notify Ventura County residents of evacuations, criminal investigations and community policing activities. Calls have been distributed to residents and businesses utilizing 46 onsite telephone lines to deliver the Reverse 911 message.

The purpose of the Reverse 911 call on September 17th will be to test the Mass Call feature, which enables the usage of up to 2000 offsite phone lines to deliver messages to residents. “This method of delivery will be important when critical information needs to be disseminated to residents immediately or if there were ever an issue with the 46 onsite phone lines,” said Cynthia Elliott, Public Information Officer for the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office of Emergency Services.

In a real Reverse 911 activation, the system will attempt to call phone numbers within the specified area two times. Since this is only a test, the system has been programmed to only attempt each number once and include only residential listed, non-listed and cellular telephone numbers. The geographic area that has been designated for the test includes selected areas of Casitas Springs, Oak View, Ojai Valley and the Upper Ojai region. In total, 11,236 residential numbers will receive the Reverse 911 call the evening of September 17th.

The message that residents will hear when they receive the Reverse 911 call will be: “This is the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department with a test Reverse 911 message in conjunction with the Ojai Valley OK Drill. To participate in the drill: establish and practice your Disaster Plan, tune your radio to AM 1610 for disaster information and post your “OK” sign at 7:00 PM so it’s visible from the street. For more information on the Ojai Valley OK Drill, please call 805-654-2703. When you are prepared, Ventura County is too! Thanks for doing your part.”

Questions regarding Reverse 911 may be directed to the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office of Emergency Services at (805) 648-9283.

For more information the Ojai Valley OK Drill, please call 805-654-2703 or visit their website at http://ovok.countyofventura.org.

For Matt Haag's video interview with spokeman Paul Garth, click HERE.