September 14, 2009

The system will be used to inform citizens about emergencies, by phone, e-mail and/or text messages. It can be used for wide spread notification of such things as flash flood warnings or severe winter weather warnings. It can also notify persons in a specified area, in cases such as a localized flooding event, hazardous materials spill or release of harmful agents by air that may only impact a portion of the county.

“Catawba County began using the CodeRED system earlier this year,” said Karyn Yaussy, Catawba County Emergency Management Coordinator. “It is a significant improvement over our previous system and can send out more calls in a shorter period of time. In fact, the CodeRED system actually worked faster than the local telephone infrastructure could accommodate during a recent test associated with a drill involving the McGuire Nuclear Station on Lake Norman. It’s very important that we perform this broader test of the system because of that experience.”

The CodeRED system was used during an August 18, 2009 drill to test emergency response plans and procedures that would be used in the event of an emergency at the McGuire Nuclear Station. The drill is required by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission every two years. The CodeRED system was used to send a phone message to all of the residents and businesses inside the 10-mile Emergency Planning Zone for the McGuire Nuclear Station, to test the ways in which the system would be used to inform residents of an emergency at McGuire.

Yaussy said the CodeRED system performed as it was supposed to during the McGuire drill, but phone lines were overloaded because the CodeRED system is able to send calls so quickly.

“Our latest series of tests is designed to help us learn the most effective ways to use the CodeRED system within the region’s present telephone infrastructure to insure the system sends out messages as we need it to when a real emergency occurs, without compromising the phone system. We apologize for any inconvenience citizens experience from these test calls, but we would much rather risk a brief inconvenience than have the system fail to notify someone in the event of a disaster situation or emergency that may threaten lives,” Yaussy concluded.

CodeRED is a high volume - high speed service available for mass emergency notifications. It employs an Internet mapping capability for geographic targeting of calls, coupled with a high speed telephone calling system capable of delivering customized pre-recorded emergency messages directly to homes and businesses at the proven capacity of millions of calls per day.

For more information on the County’s Community Alert System, utilizing the CodeRED service for mass emergency notifications, you may contact Catawba County Emergency Services at 828-465-8230 or learn more online at www.catawbacountync.gov.