PRINCESS ANNE — Somerset County public safety officials are encouraging residents to be better prepared for potential disasters with participation in their emergency notification system. …
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PRINCESS ANNE — Somerset County public safety officials are encouraging residents to be better prepared for potential disasters with participation in their emergency notification system. Officials would like to see more residents sign up for CodeRED, a new mass notification system now being used by the county.
“CodeRED is an innovative and beneficial addition to the county as it will help residents be better prepared to respond in an emergency situation.” said Yvette Cross, Emergency Services Director. The program delivers messages to participants via telephone, text or email in the event of an emergency such as natural disaster evacuations, missing persons, terrorism threats, escaped felons, water contaminations, and hazardous material incidents.
The system is particularly effective in times of crisis when rapid communication to a targeted group of citizens or emergency response is critical.
The county recently implemented the CodeRED system in January, replacing the previous notification system that had been in use for the past 10 years. Participation in both systems has been limited, as the previous system had only 600 of the county’s cell phone users registered. The county did acquire all landline phone numbers from Verizon and Comcast but unfortunately for Emergency Services, a growing number of residences continue to replace their landlines and become cell phone only residences.
According to Cross, wireless phones continue to be an area in need of advancement because cellphone databases are not made available to Emergency Services at this time.
A onetime performance test of the system will be conducted at 10:00 am on Thursday, February 15th, contacting everyone who is currently in the emergency database. Calls will be received from 1-866-419-5000 indicating that the call was a test. Receiving a test message will assure that residents will receive a message when an actual alert is issued by public safety officials.
Residents who have not enrolled to receive emergency notifications, or did not receive the test call should immediately visit the county website www.somerset911.org and click on the CodeRED logo. Required information includes first and last name, street address (physical address, no P.O. boxes), city, state, zip code, and primary phone number, additional phone numbers can be entered as well.
“No one should automatically assume that Somerset County emergency officials have your contact information,” Cross said, urging all individuals and businesses to take the time to enroll. For more information, please contact the Somerset County Department of Emergency at Services at 410-651-3457.