County hoping more people take advantage of CodeRED program

By STEPH TAHTINEN

Mt. Pleasant News

With an increased interest in alerts and warning systems after a tornado struck near Wayland in early May, the Henry County Board of Supervisors are hoping more people will take advantage of CodeRED, a system that makes mass phone calls to alert the public of an emergency situation.

Alerts can be sent out by the county, cities, schools and sheriff?s offices to alert residents of emergency situations, utility outages or gas leaks, to name a few examples.

The alerts can be received on both landlines and cell phones; however, a person must register in order to receive the alerts.

Currently, less than 1,000 of the county?s 20,000 residents are registered for the system, according to Emergency Management Coordinator Walt Jackson. Jackson met with the board of supervisors on Thursday morning to discuss the system because of an increased interest in alerts.

?There is interest now in the county,? said Supervisor Marc Lindeen, who noted that when the supervisors met in Hillsboro a few weeks after the tornado last month, they were asked about storm sirens for the city.

There has also been concern expressed by residents who live in the country and cannot hear sirens.

The CodeRED system could be a solution, as it sends out alerts to all phones in the area that are registered, though there is currently a slight delay.

?One of the negatives right now with CodeRED is that in an emergency situation, it takes about five minutes to launch it,? said Jackson.

There is a new CodeRED weather system that could speed up the process, however the county does not currently have this system, which costs an extra $4,000 on top of the current $10,000 per year the county pays for the CodeRED system. With the weather system, the National Weather Service sends out warnings to any phones that are within the warning area.

With this, there is also an app for smart phones that will send a message to your phone when you are within a warning area. With this app, even if you do not live in the area but are merely traveling through, you will receive an alert on your smart phone.

To register for CodeRED alerts, visit the county?s website at www.henrycountyiowa.us and click on ?Emergency Management? under the ?Office Info? tab near the top. On the Emergency Management page, click on the words ?Click here to register for Code Red.?

If you have previously registered for CodeRED and are unsure if you are still registered or need to update your registration ? such as changing a phone number ? you can check your status by logging in at that site.