County uses Code Red to reach residents

The Lincoln County Emergency Management Agency has implemented a new system to help spread information to county residents in case of emergency. The new system, Code Red, was used last week to request the public’s help in identifying the person responsible for three more human-caused fires in the Libby area.

“Basically, it’s a reverse-911 system,” said Undersheriff Brent Faulkner. “It allows us to telephone anyone in the county, or in specific parts of the county, in emergencies.”

The system is funded by a grant from the United States Department of Homeland Security, which is renewed on an annual basis.

Lisa Oedewaldt, the county’s deputy director of emergency management, initiated last week’s Code Red notification about the fires. She used the system to identify residents in the specific area of the fires and then targeted the message to just those people.

“We can select the audience from any part or any subset of Lincoln County,” she said. “We draw the map to select the residents to receive the message and then send it.”

Phone messages, she said, are either recorded by her or can be typed and converted by the computer through a text-to-speech program.

“But we use my voice,” Oedelwaldt said. “Human voices get a better response than the computer voice.”

Once the message is put into the system and triggered, three attempts are made to reach everyone on the target list. The system makes between 30 and 45 calls per minute, and will contact all non-private phone numbers registered to addresses in the area as well as anyone who has signed up for the notifications. Residents who sign up for Code Red can select how they receive notifications. Options include phone, text, email, Facebook and Twitter. There is also a mobile application for smart phones.

Oedewaldt said the system only includes information from public phone records or from people who have signed up for notifications. When signing up, residents can select an option to keep their information private. Doing so signs a person up for notifications, but name, address and contact information are not displayed to county staff.

“The system only uses public information or information voluntarily provided,” she said.

County emergency management personnel receive detailed reports of each attempt, including how many people were reached, how long people listened to the message, how many emails were delivered and opened and other delivery details. The specific data, Oedewaldt said, is never released.

“We provide the departments with general statistics from each broadcast, the number of people attempted, the number reached,” Oedewaldt said. “We don’t disseminate the information beyond that, it doesn’t print with the reports. It’s just the statistical information.”

Oedwaldt said it is important for people to sign up for Code Red and receive the notifications.

“It is a valuable tool,” she said. “Not everyone reads the paper or has Facebook, but most people have some sort of phone. This is a way we can reach a lot of people very quickly.”