Following the events of September 11, 2001, the City of Benicia saw a great rise in enrollment for its Benicia Emergency Response Team (BERT) training course. Conducted by the Benicia Fire Department, this free training program provides volunteers of all ages with the skills that individuals and neighborhoods need to coordinate an effective defense in the immediate aftermath of a natural disaster or other emergency. With the primary aim of the BERT program being to enable individual and neighborhood self-sufficiency following a catastrophic event, reliable communications between neighborhoods and first responders becomes critical in the process of providing help where it is needed most.

As we prepare our community to respond to catastrophe, we assume that landline and cellular communications will be disrupted following such events. The ability to communicate with the Emergency Operations Center is critical to effectively coordinate the efforts of our trained BERT volunteers and the limited number of professional life safety personnel in town. It is therefore of utmost importance that a reliable means of communication be established that will provide our BERT-trained residents with the ability to report injury, damage and other vital information on an as-needed basis until regular order can be returned to emergency response and communication services.