Alert system funded for another year

The emergency alert system that sent text messages about the tornado last week has been funded for another year. The future of the Wireless Emergency Notification System (WENS) was in limbo until last week when the Washington County Communications Commission agreed to fund about $4,700 toward the $14,000 project, which means it will last at least another year.

Washington County Public Health and the Washington County Hospital and Clinics will each pay for a third of the expense of operating WENS. Their contributions are coming from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, an agency under the Department of Health and Human Services. The federal government paid for WENS during its first year of operation in the county.

WENS sends text messages, voice messages and e-mails to users alerting them of emergencies such as severe weather, boil orders, evacuation orders or pandemics. The service is free to use.

Edie Nebel, public health director, said the WENS network fits in with her organization?s efforts to prepare for emergencies.

?We see the wireless emergency system as a great asset for our county,? Nebel said. ?If there is a disease outbreak, this is a nice tool to communicate that to the public.?

Washington County Hospital and Clinics CEO Dennis Hunger said the hospital is attempting to provide more preventive care, and he sees WENS as part of that effort.

?This is a side of health care we?re trying to evolve into,? he said.

He said that if people know about disasters immediately, they will be more likely to avoid their harmful effects and less likely to require medical attention.

?We?ve used WENS recently on things like boil orders,? he said. ?It?s better to avoid a problem altogether than to treat a lot of sick people later.?

Residents in Washington County who signed up for the service received a message Thursday evening about the area being in a tornado watch. The users in the southern part of the county received an alert about a tornado warning.

Washington County Communications Supervisor Cara Sorrells said she thought WENS worked well last week. The system was tested April 30, just a few days prior to the tornado, when a test message was sent to all the users. Sorrells said she talked to a few people who did not receive the test message because the computer could not locate their address. She said these were usually people who had ?halves? in their street addresses, which the computer did not recognize. Sorrells has since removed the halves from street addresses for the purposes of the WENS network.