The system, by Hyper-Reach, will replace the city’s Everbridge system and will be the first one for the county.
Kim Tegeler, emergency management coordinator for the city, said that the Hyper-Reach system will be more user-friendly, both for the citizens who sign up for it and the dispatchers sending out notices. The new system was one of four that a committee of city and county members looked at before choosing Hyper-Reach.
“This one seemed to be more user-friendly and a better choice for our citizens and those who send out messages,” Tegeler said. Of the Everbridge system, Tegeler said, “It wasn’t easy to use, it wasn’t easy for citizens to register for it and it wasn’t easy for our dispatchers to send out a boil [water] order for a certain area. They weren’t able to draw a square or a box,” as a targeted area, she said.
Effingham will use its GIS mapping along with the Hyper-Reach system to target areas for notices, Tegeler said. She said the system will be rolled out and staff trained in the next couple of weeks.
Tegeler said that so far, she has just participated in a couple of demos but that being able to target certain residents was a big selling point for the system. “That was one of our big questions. What if it’s two blocks, how are we going to tell them? Can we pick certain residents? Those are the issues we took into consideration.”
The cloud-based system can send messages to landlines, mobile phones, through email, simultaneously and converts written material to voice. The system can instantly deliver about 50,000 30-second pre-recorded voice messages per hour and more than 50,000 texts per hour.
The Everbridge system was primarily used for boil orders, but Tegeler said the new system will be used for all manner of notifications. “We could use it for hazmat, to let people know whether they need to shelter in place or evacuate; there are multiple functions we can use it for, but the majority of times it will be to let them know they’re under a boil order.”
The county’s interest was sparked during an ice storm a few years ago and during a gas leak.
“Several years ago, we had an anhydrous leak over in Altamont and we had a deputy going door to door to evacuate people,” Tina Daniels, telecommunications supervisor for the county, told the Effingham Daily News. “That would have been the perfect time to use one of these systems where we can get a large number of people notified at the same time.”
The county has a population of slightly more than 34,000. The city is composed of about 12,600 residents.
The system will cost $7,300 a year and will be split between the county and city. The Everbridge contract is set to expire on May 1.
