Shelby County introduces new emergency notification system
In an effort to keep Alabama citizens safe and informed, the Shelby County EMA launched the Shelby ALerts Emergency and Community Notification System last month.
The county is working with Everbridge, a notification and alert system company, to keep residents, employees and emergency personnel safe and informed with quick and reliable emergency notifications and public service announcements.
The free system is intended to send lifesaving emergency notifications straight to cellphones, landline phones and email, and quickly provide critical information about severe weather, fires, floods, road closures, missing persons, evacuations and other emergencies.
Hub Harvey, supervisor of Shelby County Development Services Emergency Management, said Jefferson County has had this system for several years, and while Shelby County looked at a few different systems, it made sense to go with something a neighboring county had.
“It has allowed us to learn a lot of lessons about what they were doing with their system,” Harvey said.
When signing up, users can select up to five specified locations to receive alerts from, which could include your home address, your child’s school and places of employment. Users can also set their preferred form(s) of contact, including cellphone, text, home phone and email, to ensure real-time access to potentially lifesaving information.
Residents listed in the Shelby County 911 database will be automatically subscribed to alerts if they have a landline, but Everbridge allows citizens to self-register, provide additional contact information or opt out. Contact information will be secure and never provided to outside sources or vendors.
“We have a commitment to ensure public safety, community awareness and emergency response,” said Harvey. “To uphold this, when critical information and public service announcements are available, we need to reach our residents as quickly and reliably as possible.”
The program not only sends alerts during emergencies, but also provides a database of those who have volunteer skills, disaster skills training or have a personal storm shelter. This information is fully voluntary, but could be critical for first responders during a disaster.
Emergency notifications, including tornado warnings, will not alert if a phone is on Do Not Disturb mode.
Harvey suggests turning on repeated calls and saving the contact information to their favorites to allow voice calls to ring. Voice messages come from 205-610-0950 and texts from 89361.
An email can be sent to shelbyalerts@shelbyal.com for an automated reply containing a vCard you can save to your phone contacts. To sign up for notifications from the Shelby County EMA, text SHELBYALERTS to 888777. For more information, visit shelbyal.com/252/Emergency-Management-Agency-EMA.
With spring severe weather season beginning March 1, residents are encouraged to complete the signup process.
“This is a fantastic system to have for free and want to give everyone the opportunity to use it,” Harvey said.