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Fairfield Co. Emergency Alerts Notify Houses In Tornado Warning Area
By: Sara Nealeigh
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The Fairfield County Emergency Management Agency will now send notifications to residents in the event of a tornado.
EMA Director Jon Kochis says Alert-Fairfield County sends automated messages in the event of an emergency. The alerts now include contacting addresses within a National Weather Service Tornado warning area.
Kochis says the system is a more efficient way to reach out to people when every second counts.
"The history has shown us that we needed a way to communicate with people in an emergency, directly to them. We have outdoor warning sirens for tornadoes, we have the emergency alert system that's on our televisions, but we want a way to really focus on the people that we know they're carrying a cell phone every day or they're usually in pretty close contact with their home phone. We want to reach out to those people directly," said Kochis.
Kochis said the system could get a call out to all homes in the county in about 15 minutes.
Only phone numbers registered for the free program will receive the messages. Kochis estimates between 2,000 and 3,000 households will sign up for the alerts. Once registered at the Fairfield EMA website, the resident can manage their profile and contact information, updating phone numbers as needed.