CodeRED system now includes weather warnings

 In conjunction with Severe Weather Awareness week, the Montgomery County Emergency Management Agency (EMA) and Public Health are rolling out an updated notification system for severe weather warnings. 

The CodeRED notification system has been in place in the county for around 10 years, but as of last week, will now include text message, phone call and email alerts for tornado, flash flood, severe thunderstorm and winter storm warnings. 

“We are rural so the county people who aren’t in town don’t have the sirens and things to be notified; so if it’s the middle of the night, they don’t have the radio on or the news so I think this is effective to warn this area,” public health office manager Sam Thomas said. 

In the past, the county emergency management and public health offices used the system for alerts such as boil advisories and gas leaks, but EMA coordinator Brian Hamman said it was only used a few times during the last several years. 

After joining a county EMA and public health coalition with Page and Fremont County last fall, Thomas said they decided to purchase this updated system since the other counties already had it in place. 

The updates cost around $6,000 on top of the $15,000 annual fee for CodeRED, which is paid for through the coalition’s shared state funding for each county.

To register for the notification system, visit montgomerycountyiowa.com and follow the CodeRED link; links will also be available on the City of Red Oak and Villisca websites. Current users will have to log in and opt-in to their CodeRED account to update their settings to include these warning alerts.

For more information on the system, contact EMA at 623-3749 or public health at 623-4893.

Severe Weather Week

Severe weather week, which runs March 24-28, includes the annual tornado drill day Wednesday. 

The National Weather Service will issue a test tornado warning at 10:10 a.m. across the county. The warning will be valid for 20 minutes, and all citizens, businesses, schools and public facilities are encouraged to participate in this drill by practicing responses as if it were a real warning.

The Montgomery County Communications Center will activate all outdoor warning sirens for the cities of Red Oak, Stanton, Villisca, Elliott and Grant along with indoor warning systems for participating agencies.

The county EMA will also post daily severe weather awareness topics on its Facebook page throughout the week.