Genesee County officials have a new tool to help them in emergencies. Now in place, the county will be able to call thousands of people in a short period to pass along urgent information.
How do you contact everyone in a neighborhood and let them know they need to evacuate? What can you do to let people know a child is missing or a criminal is on the loose?
The answer in Genesee County is Reverse 911.
Officials with Genesee County Central Dispatch will be able to call 130,000 homes and businesses and pass along important information. What we plan on doing is using it only for emergency purposes," said Genesee County 911 spokesperson Dave Ackley. If an emergency should arise where the Reverse 911 system is needed, a supervisor at Genesee County Central Dispatch would record a message into the computer.
The computer would then start calling phone numbers at the rate of 100 a minute. "A resident of Genesee County would hear this message and it would tell them what to do," explained Ackley. The system is funded by a $150,000 grant from the Department of Homeland Security. Similar systems are being installed in Flint and Fenton.
"Typically, it's about a 20 to 25 second message," said Ackley. "That can be one block, five blocks, a mile square, a township, a city, or the entire county." Every phone number in Genesee County phone books is already loaded into the system. Genesee County wants you to voluntarily submit the numbers for your unlisted phones, cell phones and Voice Over Internet (VOIP) phones so they can be included in the event of an emergency.
Click Here To Register:
Back to News
|
News
9-1-1
Kids Corner
Home