A first-ever systematic study of the effectiveness of reverse 911 calls shows it worked like a charm and saved lives when fires consumed 368,340 acres and 1,600 structures in San Diego County in 2007. A team led by John Sorensen and Barbara Vogt of Oak Ridge National Laboratory concluded that its findings should be encouraging to communities that have adopted or are considering adopting the reverse telephone warning technology. "By far the dominant initial warning came from the reverse telephone emergency call system, reaching 42.1 percent of the households in the survey population," the report states. Television was next at 7.7 percent in the survey of 1,200 households located in areas identified as evacuation zones. While 10 people died as a result of the fires, officials noted that the toll would have been much higher without the reverse 911 system. Funding was provided by the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The Mississippi State University Social Science Research Center conducted the survey.
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