County Introduces Code RED

DAYTON - Columbia County Emergency Manage­ment Director Lisa Caldwell announced last week that her office is implementing a new emergency notification pro­gram this month. The sys­tem, called CodeRED, will allow Columbia County of­ficials to quickly send emergency notifications to targeted neigh­borhoods or the entire county, using phone calls, text messages and emails.

According to a press re­lease issued by Caldwell's office, the county will test the CodeRED system on Tuesday, February 18, by calling every household and business in the system.

"The calls will be in the morning and will continue until the entire database has been attempted," the release said. "This call will give county personnel the chance to operate the system as if there has been a community- wide disaster. The message that is being delivered di­rects recipients to the county web site to add additional contact numbers, and it also asks that recipients spread the word by mentioning the system to family, friends and neighbors."

"No one should auto­matically assume his or her phone number is included," Caldwell said. She said residents and businesses can add their contact informa­tion by going to the county's website, columbiaco.com, where there is a link to the CodeRED enrollment page. Residents can also enroll by calling Columbia County Public Safety Commu­nications at (509) 382-2518 during business hours.

"CodeRED gives those who want to be included an easy and secure method for inputting information," Caldwell said. "The data collected will only be used for emergency notification purposes."

To provide the new ser­vice, the county has con­tracted with Emergency Communications Network, LLC, a private company based in Florida. ECN has been providing emergency notification systems, includ­ing CodeRED, to munici­palities around the country for many years.

"All businesses should register, as well as all in­dividuals who have un­listed phone numbers, who have changed their phone number or address within the past year, and those who use a cellular phone or VoIP phone as their primary number," the county's press release said. "CodeRED al­lows geographically-based delivery, which means street addresses are required to ensure emergency notifica­tion calls are received by the proper individuals in a given situation. The system works for cell phones too, but we need to have an associated street address to provide rel­evant messages."