Chelsea L. McGowan

cmcgowan@weatherforddemocrat.com

The citizens of Weatherford may soon have a new tool at their disposal as an early warning alert system has been presented as part of the proposed annual budget.

Code Red is a telephone alert system with a variety of uses, and Weatherford Fire Chief George Teague said once it is implemented it will become a great asset to the community.

“It appears right now that the Code Red system has a favorable recommendation from both the council and the city staff,” Teague said. “We need this tool in our pocket so that we can keep our residents informed about emergencies and what the city is doing.”

If adopted as part of the budget for fiscal year 2008, the Code Red system would be capable of warning Weatherford’s citizens about everything from severe weather situations to street maintenance, all in record time.

“The system will make approximately 1,000 calls per minute,” Teague said. “We can use it for something as notifying people of water main breaks, or to tell people to take precaution because there’s a severe hailstorm coming through. We could tell a group as small as one block, or the entire city could be notified in 30 minutes or less.”

Other cities, such as Hudson Oaks, have recently implemented the Code Red system. Teague said the tool’s good reputation is one of the reasons the city decided to adopt it.

“There are several cities in Parker County and around the Metroplex that are using it,” he said. “We started looking at it because we think it’s important for the city to have a method to contact individual homeowners with both emergency messages and general information.”

Code Red will function as an automatic call system and will be housed in both the Weatherford police station and fire station.

In addition to canned messages about weather situations such as tornado warnings, city personnel will be able to craft custom messages for situations specific to the community.

For example, Teague said he has heard of other cities using the Code Red alert system to notify specific areas of missing persons.

“Since we can target a small area of residences, we could put out an alert that a 4-year-old boy was missing and what he was wearing so that people in the immediate area could help us look,” he said. “It’s had good success that way.”

While the system is designed to recognize answering machines on home phones, Teague said residents can sign up for additional notifications on the go.

“One of the distinct advantages that we’re going to be offering is getting severe weather alerts directly to your cell phone or computer,” he said. “Thunder Call is a voluntary thing and it’s directly tied to the U.S. Weather Service. When a warning for something like a flash flood or tornado is issued in a citizen’s area, the system would automatically dial them and give them that message.”

Teague said he hopes the system will be up and running by the middle of November and he thinks Weatherford residents will be pleased with the results.

“I think people are going to appreciate knowing what’s going on,” he said. “It takes a while to get maps uploaded and things like that, but we’re looking to get this online as soon as possible.”