Motorola Solutions (NYSE: MSI) today announced that the state of California has bolstered its disaster preparedness and response capabilities by leveraging Rave Prepare to collect additional opt-in information that will help emergency managers, public safety authorities and public health preparedness officials more accurately target critical messages via the state’s Enhanced Alerting program.

“The state of California has taken significant steps to address the emergency preparedness needs of those who may require alternative safety strategies through its NG 9-1-1 initiative,” said Todd Piett, corporate vice president of command center technologies at Motorola Solutions. “State leaders have prioritized community engagement and worked with our team to develop a customized solution that enables state and local agencies to holistically serve residents when earthquakes, flooding, heatwaves and other catastrophes happen.”

Enhanced Alerting helps to evolve disaster preparedness models beyond pen and paper access and functional needs (AFN) registries so that genuine partnerships are fostered among emergency management agencies and community members. California’s new program allows residents who may need more time or additional resources to prepare for severe weather or other crisis events to proactively provide information about unique considerations, transportation needs and language preferences. Public safety officials can aggregate this demographic data via the Rave Prepare interface, heatmap areas that may require more notice and issue inclusive, multilingual emergency notifications, such as SMS text for the hearing-impaired or audio phone messages for the visually-impaired.

Since 2000, California has made close to 300 disaster declarations. By providing profile information such as modes of communication, emergency access instructions, mobility considerations and power-dependent equipment needs, residents can help emergency management agencies better meet the safety needs of the whole community.