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Missouri Jurisdictions Prepare for Switch to Enhanced Emergency Preparedness and Notification System

The switch is scheduled to occur on July 1.

(TNS) -- Come Saturday, July 1, all communities within Randolph County will officially launch an enhanced version of its emergency preparedness and mass notification services for citizens, introducing a product called CivicReady to be used in lieu of the current Code Red system that expires June 30 announced Monday by Jim Charrier, Emergency Management Director for Randolph County and Moberly.

This mass communication tool allows Moberly and Randolph County emergency personnel to communicate with citizens quickly and efficiently before, during and after an emergency. In addition, it can be used for routine events and community updates. Citizens can be reached through email, SMS, and voice calls depending on preference.

"With the enhanced communication system, the Moberly and Randolph County will be able to increase its community engagement and be better prepared in the event of an emergency," Charrier said. "Citizens will benefit from easier profile management, increased communication speeds and other improvements to the quality of communication."

Charrier said he has been studying the possibility of switching the current emergency system named Code Red to CivicReady with Randolph County commissioners and City of Moberly Manager Brian Crane for nearly one year.

"Code Red is a fairly expensive system yet having limited options compared to what Civic Ready offers. In our study, we learned that CivicReady not only does everything that Code Red does, but it also provides several options for our managers and citizens, it's more enhanced and there is a cost savings of 20-to-30 percent from the price of Code Red," Charrier said. "We all feel this new system will be a great benefit to our citizens. It will give improved notification ability and options to the people here in Randolph County while providing some cost savings for the taxpayers."

Charrier said Code Red cost about $15,000 annually to operate while CivicReady brings roughly a $4,500 savings.

Unfortunately, persons who receive Code Red now cannot have their data and information automatically transferred over to the new system. New registrations to CivicReady are required for everyone.

"We are unable to perform a data base shift from Code Red to CivicReady. Therefore, everybody that signed up for Code Red will have to register themselves over to CivicReady and I encourage them to do so as soon as possible as well as any resident in this county who has never done so before," Charrier said. "While it is not a great thing that we are not be able to transfer the database from one system to the other, there is an upside for managers of the system. It will allow us to purge names and information of all the people who are no longer living in this county, allowing us more accurate, up-to-date information on our residents that will help us to keep them better informed and more safe when an emergency situation does occur."

The CivicReady system provides flexibility on how the public is notified for certain emergency preparedness or notification purposes.

When registering, each person will have control on how they will receive messages by selecting one or more choices. They have options to receive voice messages by land line phone and/or cell phone, cell phone text message, or by email explained Charrier.

There are additional, enhanced options for persons to consider such as being part of a group notification such as being among the National Weather Service automated weather alert messages, disaster problems associated within an emergency management group, law enforcement announcements, and public utility announcements for boil orders, school notifications, and the parks department may use this to announce cancellation of ball games for example.

"From my perspective as the emergency management director, CivicReady is an outstanding system that I believe we will get a lot of mileage out of. Hopefully, we will not have to use it often, because its purpose is to notify persons about key emergency or disaster situations of magnitude. But we will have the comfort knowing it will be here to let others know what is going on," Charrier said. "In the disaster business we have three things we want the public to know about as soon as we can; here's what's going on, here's what we're doing about it, and here's what you can do to help."

Local media outlets will continue to be a source to help disseminate emergency management notifications and situations when they arise. However, Charrier explained that for those who register for CivicReady, they will get direct and more timely notices almost instantly as they occur.

To sign up online, visit the City of Moberly webpage or the Randolph County website, click on the link named CivicReady found on the respective home page home page. From here, persons will follow the directions listed.

For persons who do not have a computer or who are not Internet savvy, they may visit the Moberly Police Department, the City Manager's office in Moberly City Hall and Randolph County Sheriffs Office in Huntsville to pick up a CivicReady form to fill out and leave at those respective offices.

These documents will be given to Charrier, allowing him to input data into the new system so that those persons will be notified accordingly during times of an emergency. Charrier said he would follow up this measure by calling persons who registered by such means. Meanwhile, for those who use the Internet to register, an electronic reply is sent.

Charrier said the new system allows persons to access their account at any time and make changes to their personal liking on how they are to be notified, and by which groups. For Internet users, this can be done instantly online while for non-Internet users they will need to visit one of the designated offices listed above to fill out a new form to make necessary changes.

©2017 Moberly Monitor-Index, Mo. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.