Loganville's New Emergency Alert System Tested During Weekend Storms
Two tornado warnings and a flood warning went out on the city's new CodeRED Emergency Alert system during last weekend's severe weather conditions.
Loganville’s CodeRED Emergency Alert System got a real live test during last weekend’s storms and it performed “perfectly,” according to officials.
“We had our first launch at 1:44 a.m. Saturday,” said Loganville Fire Chief Danny Roberts. “We sent out three alerts, two tornado warnings in Walton and a flood warning in Gwinnett.”
Roberts said he received a report listing all the calls made, whether the call was answered or whether it went to voicemail.
CodeRED is an emergency alert system instituted by the city as an alternative to sirens.
“This is much better than sirens – this is money well spent,” said Mayor Ray Nunley.
The city agreed to spend the negotiated $5,000 per year for three years as well as an additional $1,250 for year one and $2,500 in subsequent years for the weather alert system. As well as the emergency alerts, the city can use the system to notify residents to things the city might need them to know. Notifications can be sent out via cell phone, text message, email or phone. There is also a hearing impaired tab available and if someone does not have access to the Internet, they can call the city for activation.
Roberts said at 8:30 a.m. March 15 a call will go out to all residents in the city notifying them that the system is now available to them.
“The number called will be the one we have on file for the utilities,” Roberts said.
Sherry Lambert
8:08 am on Wednesday, March 7, 2012
This new CodeRED system is wonderful! My cell phone rang beside my bed and woke me with a tornado warning message that was clear and concise. I turned on the TV saw the radar and live warning, my husband looked outside to see trees moving in every different direction and said 'lets get the kids and go to the basement'. Thank goodness we have no damage but we were safe due to the call! I signed up just a couple weeks ago when I saw it here on Loganville Patch.
Sharon Swanepoel
8:13 am on Wednesday, March 7, 2012
Thank you for letting us know that Sherry. I'm so glad we were able to help get the message out. Kudos to the city for taking this action. Experts are predicting a very busy tornado season this year so it was a good time for them to implement the system.
Kristy Olds
10:35 am on Wednesday, March 7, 2012
Will you please post the link again so that people can sign up for it?
Sharon Swanepoel
10:53 am on Wednesday, March 7, 2012
Here you go Kristy. People can just click on this link and then access the Code Red link on the right hand side. http://www.loganville-ga.gov/
Terrence Johnson
3:49 pm on Thursday, March 8, 2012
Wow! The author of this article just seems to love this system! My experience has been different. I got a call but it was in pieces and garbled. I know it was from this system because it said "the following is a Code Red Weather Warning... and... syllable... broken speech... disconnect" in my view this warning was a failure so I did a simple search on the web and found they had a series of miserable failures during this exact storm. Check out this story and the comments at the bottom… seems our humble townsfolk are the lucky ones this time, what about next time when people are relying on this thing? http://www.hometowndailynews.com/9474/breaking_news_phone_alert_system_did_not_work_prior_to_tornado_in_branson.html
Sharon Swanepoel
4:11 pm on Thursday, March 8, 2012
Terrence, are you in the city of Loganville? Do you know of anyone else who didn't get a clear call?
Paul
10:37 am on Friday, March 9, 2012
I suspect terrence might work for a competitor of code red.