Centre County is encouraging residents to sign up for its new emergency mass notification system launched earlier this year.
ALERTCentre, provided by Motorola Solutions company Rave Mobile Safety, went live on Jan. 1 with a soft rollout to residents who were previously registered for the old system. The new platform, which replaced the previous CodeRed system, was selected for “for its speed, reliability and accuracy,” and is “designed to enhance and provide more reliable, faster notifications to residents during events where the life safety of the public may be in jeopardy,” Centre County Emergency Management wrote in a news release this week.
Capable of of making telephone calls, sending text messages and emails and posting to social media, ALERTCentre provides emergency notification outreach to Centre County citizens and county employees. The county expects to use it to notify notify residents in the event of missing persons, floods, evacuation and shelter in place orders, wanted fugitives, active violence incidents, and any other life threatening or critical emergencies.
To register, Centre County residents can go to smart911.com/smart911/ref/reg.action?pa=centrecountypa, where they will have the option to select whether to receive alerts by text, phone call, email or all three. Multiple family members for one household address can be enrolled, and those who register can build a custom dataset with information about their residences and families. All information is kept private and is not distributed.
“Any resident who signed up with CodeRED previously should sign up for ALERTCentre to create a new updated profile in the new system and take advantage of additional options offered,” according to the news release.
Enrollment is free and voluntary, and those who sign up can opt out at any time.
Alerts are based on the address of the incident, and messages can be targeted to the entire county, a specific municipality or a radius or zone around a hazard area. Individuals within the targeted area will receive an alert message.
ALERTCentre is a state-of-the-art system providing Emergency Management officials with a reliable, easy-to-use interface to quickly deliver critical information to our citizens during emergencies,” Centre County Emergency Management wrote.
Centre County’s Board of Commissioners in October approved a five-year contract with Rave for $23,250 annually. A $10,000 insurance grant will offset some of the cost.
