ThisWeek CW 07/30/2015
http://www.thisweeknews.com/content/stories/canalwinchester/news/2015/07/27/safety-network-3-communities-connect-with-county-alert-program.html
Canal Winchester, Groveport and Madison Township officials have announced membership in the new Franklin County Emergency Management Agency and Homeland Security ALERT emergency notification system, now available to all area residents.
ALERT Franklin County is customizable and allows residents to choose the kind of community notifications they want to receive and how they would like to receive them, via text messaging, automated phone call or email.
Residents can elect to receive emergency notifications about severe weather and disasters, as well as location-specific information regarding crime alerts, road closures, transportation incidents, utility outages, government closings and other news.
“We have a commitment to ensure public safety, community awareness and rapid response. When important information and community announcements are necessary, we need to reach our residents as quickly and reliably as possible,” Canal Winchester Mayor Michael Ebert wrote in an email statement.
“The ALERT Franklin County mass notification system will allow the city of Canal Winchester to distribute this information across all types of devices, ensuring residents have access to real-time public information when they need it the most.”
Michael R. Pannell, director of Franklin County Emergency Management and Homeland Security, said the opt-in system will alert residents of significant warnings.
“The ALERT system will warn the citizens of Franklin County of severe weather, dam failures, terrorism, major hazardous material incidents, major aircraft accidents, significant civil disturbance, major utility disruptions, damage-producing earthquakes and other significant warnings,” said Pannell.
Groveport city Administrator Marsha Hall and Madison Township Administrator Susan Brobst both said they are excited to roll the ALERT program out to residents. In addition to the county system, Groveport and Madison Township also have local systems for more community-specific notifications.
“We began working on our system before the county system was initiated. We plan to use our community system for more local announcements and the countywide system, in conjunction with ours, for larger emergencies,” Hall said.
Residents will be able to opt in and specify which notifications they prefer to receive. Choices will include nonemergency alerts, boil alerts, local traffic alerts, community celebrations, cancellations and closure notices.
For residents of Groveport and Madison Township, community specific notification signup can be completed by visiting nixle.com. The city of Canal Winchester has been operating its own community specific notifications but will discontinue those and migrate all notifications to the county ALERT system by year’s end.
Canal Winchester residents currently receiving notifications via the city’s website link, “Notify Me,” will be asked to opt in to the new system.
The ALERT system will be available at alertfranklincounty.org, fcemhs.org or through the city of Canal Winchester website, canalwinchesterohio.gov.