EMA Director Joe Schroeder said the app provides an economical and user-friendly way to get emergency alerts out to residents.
“We used to use Reverse 911 service funded by the ETSB [Emergency Telephone System Board], we no longer use that and had to develop a plan to still get the information to the residents,” Schroeder said.
Schroeder said Reverse 911 is a public safety communications system developed by Cassidian Communications that allows users to pick a geographic area to which to push alerts. The cost of the system is $17,000 a year and it dials home phones within the defined area.
With many residents giving up their landline and going to strictly cellphones, the app made sense to Schroeder. The cost to the county to get the app up and running was also a deciding factor with the bill coming in at just less than $3,000.
In addition to alerting the public of dangers, the app also has a way the public can alert the EMA of damage after a storm or weather event.
By going to the “report damage” button in the app it allows users to specify the type of damage, where the damage is located, and the date and time. In addition to submitting text about the damage, users can also add an image to show the damage they are discussing.
This allows the EMA to include those damage reports when they report to the National Weather Service. If there is more than one person reporting damage in a specific area, the EMA can send someone from its office out to investigate the damage.
“The report feature is one of the features I’m most looking forward to,” Schroeder said. “If one, two or three people in an isolated area report damage we can send that to the weather service for their use when they work to validate what they see on radar.”
The app also provides a weather feature that will give you current and forecasted weather for where you are located, as well as show you weather in Grundy County even when you are away on vacation.
There are also buttons that give contact information for the county, links to social media accounts run by EMA, and a section for educating residents on preparedness for different events.
The app can be found and downloaded free in iTunes or in your phone’s app store.
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©2015 the Morris Daily Herald (Morris, Ill.)
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