A new countywide alert system will notify registered residents of any life-threatening dangers near their homes.
Hamilton County Mayor Claude Ramsey and Emergency Services Director Don Allen announced the system Monday at a news conference in the county’s 911 center on Amnicola Highway.
The system would be used “if there is an emergency or disaster, any kind of disaster or any kind of activity where we need to quickly notify the population,” Mr. Ramsey said.
To get the notices, county and city residents must register with the system online and provide their telephone number, e-mail and street address.
Messages are sent in bulk to all registered users in an emergency.
TO REGISTERGo to www.hamiltontn.gov and click on the ALERT banner on the right side of the page.
“For example, if we do a 15-second message we can put out 50,000 to 60,000 messages a minute,” he said.
The annual contract for the system costs $10,000 and is run by the 21st Century Co., Mr. Allen said.
There is an additional charge for the volume of messages sent, but Mr. Allen said he did not have that figure available.
The system will not be used for tornadoes or severe weather such as the snowstorm that hit Hamilton County on Friday, he said.
Instead, it will be used in case of such events as terrorist attacks, pandemics, chemical spills and disasters at nuclear plants, officials said.
“We will have the ability to get information out to the public and what action they should take,” Mr. Allen said.
The system will run phone calls from the Southwest part of the United States to avoid any problems with local phone system overload, Mr. Allen said.
There are 165 registered users on the ALERT system, which started operating last week, he said. The system can hold more users than the current population of Hamilton County, he said.
Whitfield County, Ga., has had a similar system in place for four years. Emergency Management Director Jeffrey Putnam said the system sends a voice message to registered users and has been used since he took over two years ago.
“We’re definitely glad we’ve got it,” he said. “It serves the purpose for which it was purchased.”