New System Will Send Out Targeted Emergency Alerts Fast

If a train derailment causes a gas leak, flooding gets out of hand or a chemical tanker overturns on the highway in or near Stillwater, a system will be in place soon to quickly notify residents in the affected area.

The Washington County Board voted last week to contract to use the CodeRed_ Emergency Notification system.

Toward the end of June, Public Health and Environment Director Lowell Johnson said he expects to begin advertising the service to the public and providing a platform for residents to add cell phone numbers and other numbers to the system’s database. The system will be built on the county’s existing 911 database of addresses and phone numbers, so a homeowner with a landline is most likely already in the database, Johnson said.

Residents will also have the option to get notifications by email or text message, he said.

Using the system, public safety departments can quickly get an alert out to a specific or broad area, Johnson said.

In Dakota County, officials used the system to notify residents within a certain radius about a man with Alzheimer’s disease who had wandered off.

A resident found the man in his home and knew who to call because he had received a phone message with the information, Johnson said.

“It could be a missing person kind of thing, or one of these more environmental emergencies, a natural disaster, chemical release, a whole variety of things,” Johnson said.

The system will be used for a variety of incidents that could include serious criminal activity (such as a gunman on the loose), natural disasters or manmade disasters such as a gas leak, Stillwater Police Chief John Gannaway said.

“It will be used for incidents that are not at the level where we will sound the sirens, but it is at the level where people can get information,” Gannaway said. “This will be used in any serious incident that causes the public to be informed and may want to take precautionary safety steps.”

The county’s agreement with _Emergency Communications Network, Inc._ will run through Dec. 31, 2012, and cost $52,500 total.

Watch Stillwater Patch for information on when residents will be able to sign up additional numbers in the system.