By JAN LARSON McLAUGHLIN
BG Independent News
Wood County residents are being asked to sign up for mass emergency notifications through the new countywide CodeRED system.
The alerts will send information on such emergency situations as weather alerts, fires, floods, water boil advisories, hazardous material incidents, criminal activity, evacuations, power outages, snow emergencies and missing person cases.
The service is free – but residents have to sign up to get the alerts. They can do sign by visiting the Wood County Emergency Management Agency website at http://woodcountyema.org/.
“For us to help you, you need to make sure we have your updated contact information,” Wood County Emergency Management Agency Director Jeff Klein said. “Early notification can be the difference between life and death.”
Klein held a press conference Tuesday with fire, police and officials present from many communities in the county.
To make the alerts available countywide, the Wood County Commissioners agreed last year to pay $23,000 – half of the entire cost of the system. The remaining half is being split by the communities or entities wanting to be able to access the alert system themselves for messages specific to their communities.
Those entities include Bowling Green, Northwood, Perrysburg, Rossford, Bradner, Custar, Grand Rapids, Pemberville, Walbridge, Wayne, West Millgrove, plus the townships of Lake, Liberty, Middleton, Montgomery and Perrysburg.
The notifications will be specific for the areas involved, Klein said.
“You will only receive notification if you are in the area of concern,” he said.
The county EMA will make a test call of the new alert system on July 1, at 10 a.m.
Wood County Commissioner Craig LaHote said the mass alert system makes the county a safer place, and by doing it countywide, the system is more affordable for communities.
Bowling Green Police Chief Tony Hetrick is pleased the new system is being put in place.
“We’ve been looking at this for a few years, but it was cost prohibitive until the county jumped in,” Hetrick said.
Unlike the Nixle system used before, the CodeRED system is more specific and efficient.
“This can be very pinpoint accurate,” the police chief said.
Bowling Green Fire Chief Bill Moorman agreed.
“This makes you able to target your audience,” Moorman said.
Following are some facts about the CodeRED system:
- The system is geographically based, alerting only residents in the affected area.
- Residents may select which types of alerts they would like to receive.
- Emergency alerts are issued by the local public safety officials in this area.
- Citizens must register with CodeRED. There is no charge.
- An app is available for download onto your smartphone for free from the App Store or Google Play.
- CodeRed mobile alert app users are encouraged to enable their GPS services so the app can deliver location-based multimedia alerts to subscribers within a specific geographic area.
Those communities that are “sub-users” of the CodeRED system can activate alerts on their own for residents in their area. The system can be used for non-emergency, yet helpful information such as notification of leaf collections or road closures.
The system also has the benefit of allowing “geocoding,” so the alerts can be sent out to very specific areas. In the case of weather or hazardous material incidents, the alerts can go out to targeted areas to warn them and also to disperse recovery information after an incident.
In order to receive these notifications, residents need to sign up for the free service. Residents are also encouraged to download the free mobile app. Through this system, residents will receive the type of notification of their choice – voice, text, and/or email. This includes a notification for the visually impaired.
