Town Emergency Notification System Now Available

By Andrew Gorosko

In the event of emergencies requiring direct notification of the public, the town now has in place a computerized system that will rapidly make automated telephone calls to residents, providing them with recorded messages about those emergencies.

Town officials this week described the town’s new ability to employ a high-speed telephone emergency notification service known as CodeRED®. The town has contracted with Emergency Communications Network, Inc, of Ormand Beach, Fla., to provide the service.

Town Emergency Management Director Bill Halstead said Tuesday that the CodeRED system will provide emergency notification to people in the entire town or sections of town, depending upon the nature and extent of a given emergency.

Emergencies could include situations such as road closures, natural gas leaks, major fires, major motor vehicle accidents, hazardous material spills, flooding, missing children, and certain school-related matters.

Mr Halstead pointed out that that such telephone-based emergency notification systems are only as good as the telephone number databases that they use.

“If your phone number is not in the database, you will not be called,” he said.

The CodeRED system provides individuals and businesses with the ability to add their telephone numbers to the system’s database, he said.

Mr Halstead urged that all residents and businesses log onto the Town of Newtown’s website on the Internet at www.newtown-ct.gov and follow the hyperlink located there to the “CodeRED residential and business data collection page.”

People who do not have Internet access may call the town emergency management office at 270-4370, Mondays through Fridays, from 8 am to 4:30 pm, to provide their information via telephone, he said. Queries about the notification system also should be directed to that telephone number.

The required information includes a first and last name, street address, town, state, zip code, and primary telephone number, plus an optional secondary telephone number.

Street addresses must be provided, not post office box addresses, because the telephone dialing system requires geographic locations to make calls. Cellular telephone numbers may be provided, but those numbers must be accompanied by street addresses.

The town already has a database of approximately 9,000 listed telephone numbers in its database for the CodeRED system.

“No one should automatically assume his or her phone number is included…All businesses should register, as well as all individuals who have unlisted phone numbers, who have changed their phone number or address within the last year, and who use a cellular telephone as their primary home phone,” Mr Halstead said.

People who have recently moved, but who have kept the same listed or unlisted telephone number, also need to change their street addresses in the database at the CodeRED website, Mr Halstead said.

Information provided by residents for use in the CodeRED system will be used only for emergency notification purposes and not provided to other parties for other purposes, he said.

 The town’s initial participation in the CodeRED system is being covered by a $10,000 US Department of Homeland Security grant. Ensuing years of participation, at $5,000 annually, would be covered by the town.

Because the notification system is geographically based, the town can be specific about who is notified of given emergencies.

For example, if a street needed to be closed for an extended period for the replacement of a damaged utility pole, the town could notify all the residents within a specified radius of that street of the road closure.

Similarly, if a given street were closed due to firefighting activity in that area, residents within a specified radius of that street could be notified.

Town officials with the authority to issue CodeRED emergency messages would be able to post those messages provided that they have Internet access to the CodeRED website.

The CodeRED system would place three calls to a given telephone in seeking to make contact with its user. The system will leave messages on telephone answering machines.

Eventually, the CodeRED system would be used to send text messages and email messages to system users.

First Selectman Herbert Rosenthal said town officials have been considering acquiring an emergency notification system for the past several years. After reviewing several such systems, they decided that the CodeRED system was best suited for town use, he said.

The system provides the town with a reliable means to quickly notify a large number of residents about emergencies, he said.

The notification system initially likely would be used to provide messages about emergency situations being handled by the police and by firefighters, he said.

Police Chief Michael Kehoe termed CodeRED “a very powerful and flexible tool that can meet a lot of needs of the community.”

Currently, the first selectman, police, fire, and emergency dispatch officials will be able to create emergency messages on the system. Eventually, the town health department will be able to do so.