SD Emergency Reviews

by SC Frisbee

Doesn't install on iOS 11.2.6. Worked fine on iOS 10.3.3. Please update!

by Maggiekat67

app freezes. Now what????

by Mikali9

Most notices are for issues very far away. Three notices today for fires over 90 minutes from both where I am today and where my home is.

Worse, there were no notices for the fire that burned to within a half mile of my home. While I was there.

Again, good idea, but very poor execution.

Ideally, SDEmergency would differentiate between issues that affect me and issues that affect others. And the settings would allow for that. For example, a problem 5 miles away should have a different notice and sense of urgency than a problem more than 50 miles away.

Right now, those two issues are treated the same.

Until that’s fixed, this will just be another useless County program.

by Kris121785

I downloaded SDEmergency during the SoCal wildfires to receive updates about the Lilac fire's proximity to my location and other need-to-know alerts. Unfortunately, I now receive dozens of junk push alerts that are not truly emergency alerts. Some recent ones include:
-"Cleaning Ash from Property and Pools";
-"Staying Prepared for Continuing High Fire Risk Conditions";
-"What do Do During a Power Outage"; and,
-"Looking for a Way to Help? Monetary Donations Recommended."

There is no way to select which alerts you receive and it's really ridiculous that I'm receiving these junk alerts- if I really needed to know how to clean ash from my pool, I could certainly Google it. I don't need to be interrupted during work or when I'm sleeping with a fire-alarm sounding tone just for these spam-y notifications.

To me, it seems like quite a manipulation of SDEmergency and so far gone from SDEmergency 's supposed intention.

by Iransofaraway

Trying to view details about fire half a mile from my house. The ux is awful. Can only read like one row of text.

by FreeState

I had to uninstall it. The notification sound is the same/similar frequency as a smoke alarm and my dog freaked out every time I received a notification.

by GringitoDeAmerrrrrrica

The emergency map goes to an esri login page. This means users cannot access any of the map features. Otherwise, a good app for your emergency preparedness needs.

by WAS In LaLaLand

See above. SDEmergency needs help.

by Tripdog

SDEmergency may only be good for notifications and even that functionality is questionable. There is a big brush fire very close to my house with evacuations and there is no mention of it. The map simply shows library locations and the preparedness section is fraught with a ton of broken links. The videos have no sound and it crashes often. SDEmergency is mostly useless.

by BbBBbbbletitBEE

I really liked SDEmergency cool features. Then it wanted me to update for earthquake alerts apparently makes your phone shake. Anyway now it is stuck with the new feature staring me in the face but I can’t close it move it or do anything else it is frozen. Supposedly there is an update which might fix it but I cant find that. Don’t want to delete and lose my info.

by Londwir

The county maps should be using Google Maps for a dynamic interface. The static maps that you can’t zoom in/out from aren’t all that helpful.

SDEmergency should be updating the containment levels of fires and include info for weather like wind direction and speed.

by _Ren_Ren

One of the most useful features of SDEmergency, the interactive map, is not accessible now. It just shows an isolated picture of an area without the ability to see the county as a whole. Why did that feature go away?

by Daves1975

It is an okay app. It gives alerts out but getting the information is slow. During the rain month, December 2019, I would get flash flood warnings from SDEmergency only to wait for the information. I was contact to WiFi. My weather app was faster in giving my the information on the flash floods in my area. It’s good to have. I am hoping the county will get the information out faster.

by Hungry In CA

SDEmergency needs to be faster in getting the info to people. I get a notification & click on it to open. Then, it has to authenticate, retrieve data, update configuration, retrieve data -- again -- and finally I can see what the emergency notification is all about. Takes 5-7 min to get the info; if it was a real emergency for me I might be in real trouble if I stand there that long waiting to see what I'm supposed to do!

Keep in mind I have a fairly new phone (iPhone 4S) & use it at home on wi-fi with 3-4 bars of service, so I don't think it's an issue with my phone.

This is a great app & great service to the community, but PLEASE make an upgrade it so people can get the info they're supposed to in a timely fashion!

by BL1480

iPhone is freezing with single panel red on white typing describing upgrade but cannot exit screen and complete upgrade

by Thea's Sister Roni

Not easy to find info once you get a notification. Also I can’t delete old notifications. Not user-friendly app

by Lswelsh

There should be a way to decide what alerts we receive. I want to know if there is an emergency not how to clean my pool. I don’t have a pool. I don’t appreciate all the “urgent” messages that go out. Use notifications to warn us and post your safety precautions to the website. This way people don’t turn notifications off and miss a real emergency!

by AmonAmarth@Metal1500

SDEmergency may be cool; however, the design & layout may be more Modetn of 21st century

by Hcetigol

SDEmergency seems to be rather good for giving notifications. However, the general interface need some improvements.

by SDJaime

I don’t understand the negative reviews. SDEmergency is fantastic. I downloaded it after the fires last year, and yesterday received a text, email, push notification, and phone call of my neighborhood being evacuated (gas pipeline rupture). SDEmergency can literally be a life saver.

by Lmcm2233

...so useless

by TrialVersion

The concept and thought is a good idea however SDEmergency is poorly implemented leading to a serious risk to a loss of life.

Read full review for all details:

First off most importantly key information sections are obtained from "official sources" and then compiled for release, a process that can take several hours. This is a warning that is given if you dig deep into where "app" gets its information but is shown nowhere in SDEmergency itself.

Which brings up the first real problem,
SDEmergency it's not really an app it's just a lot of bookmarked websites (city twitter feeds, links to this app website, etc) that show up inside SDEmergency . This sounds like this makes it a good thing however the fact it is relying on existing websites makes the display of information subject to website faults.

Emergency Map unusable:
The Emergency map is virtually unusable, it's an inline display of the map on the this app website. The website appears to not intended to be mobile friendly. Clicking an info box inside SDEmergency results in a "pop up" that shows outside the visible portion of the screen. If I used Safari I could force scroll around to see the info but not inside SDEmergency . Most critically however this space specifically has a warning on the this app website that the map can take several hours to update, this is not displayed anywhere on SDEmergency leading to a lack of situational awareness.

Do not rely on this map for realtime evacuation and road closure information !!!

Links to information from each region is equally plaugued with faults and risks, being inline web pages you have all webpage faults it's better to open these pages in Safari or native app (like twitter) where you can subscribe to the info and get realtime alerts.

Your best best is to bookmark your normal information sources or if you really want to know what's going on do like me and find a HAM radio op in your neighborhood and remain on friendly terms with them as HAM is the best information source I've seen in disasters.