SALT LAKE CITY — A new emergency alert system is being put into place for six counties in northern Utah this week.
Emergency managers are asking residents to make sure they are signed up for those alerts.
“I think it’s critical to sign up,” Mark Millett, Box Elder County’s emergency manager, said. “It is all about when bad things are happening, it is the process of us being able to push out lifesaving information.”
Box Elder, Weber, Davis, Morgan, Cache, and Rich counties are moving to a new emergency alert system called Everbridge from the old CodeRed system, which has been in place for about 10 years.
Anyone who signed up for CodeRed’s alerts in the past is automatically being moved to the new Everbridge system this week.
Everbridge allows for more precise messaging and alerts that residents can sign up for.
“It allows us as counties to make our own decisions as counties how we wanted this to go,” Lisa Gosline, Weber County’s emergency manager, said. “It also allows the user to sign up for what notifications they want. That way, they are not bothered with a road closure, or maybe it is a community event — they are not bothered with that. They just want those emergency notifications.”
Lots of people no longer have landline phones, which makes emergency notifications to as many people as possible more challenging for managers.
“In the old days, it was all just reverse 911 over your phone system. The wildcard in the world today is our cellphone,” Millett said.
Even still, emergencies happen and managers want to let people know what to do in those situations.
The tricky part is getting people to sign up for the emergency alerts.
“When you’re trying to get out a message that is super important, you want to make sure you can reach the end user,” Gosline said.
