Posted at: 09/24/2012 9:51 PM
Updated at: 09/24/2012 10:43 PM
By: Steph Crock
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Email to a FriendDodge County Launches CodeRED Emergency Alert System
(ABC 6 News) -- Dodge County launched a new alert system that'll keep you in the know, even on the go. It's called CodeRED. An alert system that notifies residents in Dodge County of an emergency. We've also seen something like this both in Steele and Olmsted counties.
If you live in Dodge County, you can now get alert calls to your home phone and your cell phone, along with texts or emails. All you have to do sign up.
It’ll be a big help for law enforcement, but Captain Loring Guenther with the Dodge County Sheriff's office says the launch of the CodeRED system is going to help out the whole county. "I think it will help us out as well as the citizens of the community," he said.
It sends out calls to all land lines that are public, but like many of us, we just use our cell phones. You can get texts, calls, even emails to that too. You just have to enter that information. It's as easy at 1-2-3, just head to the Dodge County website and click CodeRED. "From there you can enter all your information in," said Captain Guenther.
“To get the information out to the public as fast as we can is always going to be able to help save lives and help the public make a good decision," said Matt Maas, Dodge County Emergency Management Director.
Not only that, but it'll send out instructions. Something you don't get with a siren. "You don't know what to do with it, when the siren goes off. So this gives us the ability to actually reach out and tell them what happening and give them instructions on what they need to do," said Maas.
Not just for weather emergencies, it can be used for almost anything like missing children, or a gas leak, and let’s say this emergency doesn't apply to the whole county... " Segregate it down to just a certain area of map, so if it’s just Mantorville or just Kasson, things like that," said Captain Guenther.
This breaking it down to the information you need to know. "It's going to be nice because we can get that information out there more quickly and accurately to everybody," said Captain Guenther.
We did some checking, and Freeborn and Mower counties do not have an alert system like this. If you're in Dodge County, you can sign up or remove your information from the system at any time.
Here's the site for CodeRED. https://cne.coderedweb.com/Default.aspx?groupid=gAt3kNPWVqmS1IwZK5elhQ%3d%3d
You'll also find the link either on the Dodge County website, their emergency management website, or on their Facebook page.
