As they hunker down during Hurricane Sandy, East Coast residents can receive authoritative, real-time bulletins on their mobile phones from police, fire and other public safety agencies through Nixle, a free messaging service.
People can sign up by simply texting their zip code to 888777 or by subscribing for free at Nixle.com. They then will receive authorized alerts directly on their mobile phones or SMS-enabled devices, as long as their batteries are charged.
Nixle uses a proprietary platform that allows participating police, fire and emergency agencies to send secure and authenticated real-time alerts. More than 6,000 agencies nationwide have signed up for Nixle, using it as their primary form of electronic outreach. These agencies prefer Nixle because, unlike other popular social media sites, each agency's account is verified and only urgent bulletins appear on subscriber phones.