The next time you answer your phone,
the voice on the other end could be telling you to evacuate for a hurricane.
The Glynn County Commission recently
approved the CodeRED emergency calling system that alerts residents to impending
man-made or natural disasters.
The system has the capability of
making up to 60,000 calls per hour utilizing pre-recorded messages sent directly
to home and business phones in a specified calling area.
Telephone land lines will already be
in the system. Citizens will have the opportunity later to register their
cellular telephone numbers on the county’s Web site, www.glynncounty.org, for
inclusion.
The new system allows officials at
the Glynn-Brunswick 911 Center to notify residents in the entire county, or
narrow the calling region down to a specific neighborhood, depending on the
emergency situation.
Jim Crichton, director of the 911
center, said CodeRED will be a help during a crisis.
“This increases the likelihood of
people getting the (emergency alert) message through this mass communication
method,” he said.
Traditional emergency alert outlets –
radio and television – require a person to be tuned into one of those media
outlets to get messages, Crichton said.
With CodeRED, the approach is more
proactive, alerting people individually via telephone.
CodeRED could be used to alert
residents on various situations, such as gas leaks, fires, and hostage
situations. It could also be used to distribute important governmental messages
to local citizens.
The automated system will be able to
begin making alert calls within 15 minutes of a decision to have a mass
broadcast, Crichton said.
The CodeRed system, which is expected
to be up and run-by the end of July, has been estimated to cost $10,000 a year
for 30,000 minutes of emergency notification phone calls.
The commission is expecting to use
funds from the 911 call center’s 2008 operating budget to pay for the service.
Glynn County Commissioner Cap Fendig
has wanted to see an automated emergency alert system like CodeRED in place
since he first heard about similar systems at a hurricane preparedness
conference in 2001.
The technology for such a system has
been available since at least that time, Fendig said. Many communities in areas
that are affected by hurricanes already have similar systems, he added.
“This is long overdue technology for
Glynn County as a safety measure,” he said.
