WINCHESTER — Scott County residents soon will have the option of subscribing to a new emergency alert system from Scott County Health Department that will notify them by phone, text or email of emergency situations and resources.
The health department recently subscribed to CodeRED — an emergency alert system that is based on a set location and provides localized information about resources.
Meghan VanDeVelde, a nurse and emergency preparedness coordinator for the health department, said this will be the county’s first emergency alert system.
“It takes the boundaries of Scott County and will allow us to directly send out any emergency responses,” VanDeVelde said. “The last few years, we’ve been lucky that we haven’t had any major emergency situations, but this way we’ll be able to communicate with our residents when situations do occur.”
VanDeVelde will be the one who sends out the messages, meaning a local person will be in charge of the distribution and there will not be spam messages, she said.
The system also will ensure that reliable information is being distributed to residents, who otherwise might rely on inaccurate word of mouth, she said.
“This is our safety net we need to communicate with our communities if something were to happen,” she said.
During registration, residents will select what types of alerts they would like to receive, such as weather alerts, and how they would like to receive them — by text, phone or email.
“Say there are streets closed because of downed power lines, or flash flooding, we can send out alerts with those closures,” VanDeVelde said.
Because the system is location-based, the messages also will be specific to the area of residency, VanDeVelde said.
“If you are in Bluffs, you won’t necessarily get the same alerts as those in Winchester,” she said. “It is specific to your location.”
CodeRED is free to residents.
The program will go live in the county on Thursday.
Residents can subscribe through the department’s Facebook page, by texting “SCHDIL” to 99411, or at bit.ly/35TrRdO. Those without access to internet or a smartphone can contact the health department to register.
Those registering should use a physical address because the system will not recognize a P.O. box-based address.
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