Jacksonville, FL

Young professionals may rely on a cell phone as a primary phone.

If you don’t have the NOAA Weather radio receiver or scanner, you do what I did once when a late night tornado warning was issued. You stay up. But now that the Duval County Emergency Operations Center has implemented a telephone emergency notification system, I can go to bed. The system is capable of automatically contacting residents in the event of a potential or pending emergency. Local officials now have the ability to deliver a pre-recorded message to residents in targeted areas of the city, or to the entire county, if necessary, at a rate of up to 60,000 calls per hour.

There’s an added advantage to this new system. It’s common for the under-forty crowd to use a cell phone as a primary number. This money-saving option traditionally would keep a cell phone number off an emergency notification list. There’s good news for these residents, and for business owners and those with unpublished numbers.

An important feature of the new system, which is called CodeRED, is the ability to add business, cellular phone and unlisted telephone numbers to the calling database. Previous systems would only provide notification to those residents with phone numbers that were listed in the phone book.

“The CodeRED system will prove invaluable in the event that the city needs to quickly notify residents of a pending or potential emergency. This includes sending messages about evacuation orders, hazardous material spills or Amber Alerts,” said Lorin Mock, chief of the county’s emergency preparedness division.

While the system is preloaded with listed residential phone numbers, Mock emphasized that no one should automatically assume his or her phone number is included in this listing. All business owners who wish to have their business added to the list need to register their phone numbers. In addition, anyone who has an unlisted phone number, has changed their phone number or address within the last year, or uses a cellular phone as their primary phone is encouraged to add their information to the call list.

Phone numbers can be added to the emergency notification call list by completing an update form at the City of Jacksonville Web site, www.coj.net (see direct link below). Those without internet access may call 630-CITY (Monday through Friday, 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.) to have their phone numbers added to the list.

To register, residents must provide their first and last name, street address (no P.O. boxes), city, state and zip code. This information is necessary as the CodeRed system is a geographical-based notification program, which means street addresses are needed to select which phone numbers will receive emergency notification calls in any given situation. All information provided will only be used for emergency notification purposes.

The City of Jacksonville contracted with Emergency Communications Network, Inc., to provide this service after the contract with the previous service provider expired. The annual cost for the emergency notification system is approximately $100,000 and was funded completely by grants.

Questions regarding the notification system should be directed to the Emergency Preparedness Division at 630-2472. (by Kay Day based on text of city news release at City of Jacksonville Web site)

RECOMMENDED LINK
https://login.coderedweb.com/codereddataentry/index.cfm?GroupId=1327
Code Red Residential Data Collection Form at the Emergency Communications Network Code Red Update page. Register your unlisted number, your cell phone number or business number here.

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