JPSCD to Exercise Emergency Telephone Notification System (CodeRED)

GLYNN COUNTY, GA- The Brunswick-Glynn County Emergency Management Agency will conduct a test of the emergency automated telephone notification system on Thursday, July 31, 2008. The system, better known as CodeRED, was implemented on August 1, 2007.  At that time, minutes were purchased for use in case of an emergency. According to the agreement, any minutes not used in during the contract period are lost and do not carry over to the next year. On the eve of its anniversary with CodeRED, the JPSCD Oversight Committee has decided to put the unused minutes to work by giving residents a test call. To date, the system contains approximately 33,000 phone numbers for Glynn County.

“We thought this would be a good time to give the system a trial run” said Charlie Stewart, County Administrator. “We are in the midst of hurricane season and this will be valuable practice for everyone involved. Since we would lose the minutes anyway, we’ve decided to record a 15 second message that would reach all registered users via telephone.”

The system uses the same concept as Reverse 911, calling citizens in a designated area or countywide to alert them of emergency situations (missing children, hazardous materials, evacuation notices and routes, etc.). The telephone notification system is capable of dialing 50,000 phone numbers per hour. It then delivers a recorded message to a live person or an answering machine, making three attempts to connect to any number.

The message citizens receive will read as follows:

To register unlisted and cell phone numbers, residents must go to the Glynn County website at www.glynncounty.org under the Emergency Management Agency section. The system will then call both the primary and secondary numbers listed in the registry. If citizens choose not to submit an alternate number, they will automatically be called on their home phone line. Only local phone numbers will be accepted for the County’s CodeRED system.