NEW PORT RICHEY, Fla. — New Port Richey is among 100 cities nationwide to test Facebook’s latest feature, "Local Alerts."
- Local Alerts could include road closures, weather activity
- It's meant for use by local government and first-responder FB pages
- Clearwater, Largo and Oldsmar are also test cities
"There's so much going on in our town right now, and I felt this was a great opportunity for us to step out and be in the forefront and be a leader for this, just to showcase the city," said City Clerk Judy Meyers.
Meyers led the way in getting the city into Facebook's test group.
According to Facebook communications team member Mari Melguizo, Local Alerts is meant for use by administrators of local government and first-responder pages. If a post is labeled with a Local Alert indicator, followers in the immediate area will get a notification about the post.
The post will also go to the top of all followers' news feeds.
"It could be road closures, emergency alerts, weather activities," Meyers said of potential uses.
Melguizo said the new feature is not meant to replace existing emergency alert systems, but to provide more details about a situation to those closest to it.
"It's going to be a great tool to get that information out quickly, should we need to," said Meyers.
Meyers said New Port Richey hasn’t had the chance to post a Local Alert yet.
Melguizo said other cities that are part of the Tampa Bay test group are Clearwater, Largo and Oldsmar.
No details were available about when the feature could go live nationwide.