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The City of O’Fallon has contracted with Emergency Communications Network, Inc., of Ormond Beach, Florida, for its “CodeRED” high-speed telephone emergency notification services.
The CodeRED system gives City Officials the ability to deliver pre-recorded emergency telephone notification/information messages to targeted areas within the City and to those water customers that live outside O’Fallon. The system can make up to 60,000 calls per hour.
The new system will be primarily used to notify O’Fallon residents, businesses and surrounding water customers when boil orders are issued for their neighborhoods, but will also be used for other emergencies as well. For example, if there is a water main break on North Lincoln Avenue, all water customers who are in the database and serviced by that particular water main will be notified of the boil order via a telephone call.
When a city-wide boil order is issued, as happened last summer, the system will quickly call every water customer who is listed in the database.
“The new CodeRED system is a great tool that will greatly assist us in communicating critical information in a timely manner to our residents and water customers when emergency situations arise,” said Mayor Gary Graham.
It is important for residents and businesses to understand that the CodeRED system is only as good as the telephone database supporting it. If your telephone number is not in the database, you will not be called.
The CodeRED system not only offers faster calling rates and improved message delivery, it also gives individuals and businesses the ability to add their own phone numbers directly to the system’s telephone database.
To ensure no one is omitted, we urge all individuals and businesses to log onto the City of O’Fallon’s web site, www.ofallon.org, and follow the link to the “CodeRED Residential and Business Data Collection” pages.
Those without Internet access can stop by City Hall, the Public Safety Facility or the Public Library during regular business hours to provide their information.
Required information includes first and last name, street address (physical address, no P.O. boxes), city, state, zip code, and primary telephone number. Additional telephone numbers are optional.
No one should automatically assume his or her phone number is included. Individuals who have unlisted phone numbers, who have changed their phone number or address within the last year, or who use a cellular phone as their primary home telephone should register. It is also important for all businesses to register.
The CodeRED system is a geographical based notification system, which means street addresses are needed to select which phone numbers will receive emergency notification calls in any given situation. The system works fine for cell phones too, but a street address is necessary. People who have recently moved but kept the same listed or unlisted phone number need to change their address in the database.
CodeRED gives those who want to be contacted in an emergency an easy and secure method for doing so. The personal information you provide will only be used for emergency notification purposes and will not be released to any other entity.
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