RSS Feed
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
New phone system notifies citizens in emergencies Nearly all of Clarke County can be notified within a half hour of emergency situations, thanks to a new emergency notification system recently implemented. Any resident or business that uses a telephone for communication can be contacted in such cases as hurricane warnings, evacuations, sheltering in place, water contamination or even missing persons. Clarke County Emergency Management Agency has contracted with Emergency Communications Network, Inc. for its CodeRED highspeed telephone emergency notification services. The notification system gives county officials the ability to deliver pre-recorded emergency telephone messages to targeted areas within the county, or to the entire county, depending on what areas will be affected by the situation. “If we need to notify residents in a neighborhood of an emergency then we can. If we need to notify just the residents at the north end of the county we can. If we need to notify the entire county, we can do that,” Clarke County EMA Director Roy Waite said. Waite stressed the importance of residents and businesses making certain their telephone numbers are listed in the database. Businesses have not been included in the original database and should register. Residents who have unlisted telephone numbers, have moved within the last year or use a cell phone as their primary source of communication should also make certain their numbers are part of the database. “If your phone number is not in the database, you will not be called. No one should assume their number is included already,” Waite explained. Individuals and businesses can log onto the Clarke County website, www.clarkecountyal.com, and follow the link to Emergency Notification System CodeRED. Those without Internet access should call the EMA office at 251-275-8775, Monday through Friday, between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. to have their telephone numbers added to the database. Required information includes first and last names, street address, city, state, zip code and primary and additional phone numbers. The information is used only for emergency notification. There are four people in the county with the launch codes to activate the system, which is based in Ormond Beach, Fla. The system is capable of placing up to 60,000 per hour and Waite said he felt the entire county could easily be covered within 20 minutes. “We just want to make sure everyone is in the database, no matter what kind of phone you use, and everyone needs to know that if they see 999-911-9999 on their caller-id, then they need to pick up the phone because your being notified that there’s something going on in your area,” he added.
For more information about the CodeRED system call the EMA office at 251-275-8775 or Clarke County 911 office at 251-275-1091.
|
for larger version       Ads have a Patent Pending. Click Here for More Information |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
