Emergency notification system available to Logan County residents

 

[July 28, 2018] 

LINCOLN 

The Logan County Emergency Management Agency is now partnering with Nixle to implement a Community Notification System to alert residents in real-time for localized emergency situations and relevant community advisories.

Logan County is asking all residents to sign up to receive public safety messages through Nixle, a mass communications hub built exclusively for government to provide secure, reliable, and relevant information to residents in real-time.

According to the Nixle website, “Nixle is a Community Information Service dedicated to helping you stay connected to the information that matters most to you, depending on your physical location. You stay connected to your local police department, your children’s schools, your local community agencies and organizations, and the important information from other locations throughout the country that are relevant to you. Our service is built on the most secure, reliable, and high-speed distribution platform, ensuring that you receive trusted and immediate, geographically relevant information.”

Logan County residents have a few options for getting registered to receive these messages. The first option is to text LOGAN911EMA to 888777 from your mobile phone. The other option is to go to www.logancountyil.gov/etsb or www.logancountyil.gov/ema and sign up via the Nixle Widget on these sites.

Becky Langley, EMA Dispatch Supervisor said, “Aside from weather warning we can use this system to notify the public of any road closures due to accidents, weather, and/or other emergencies” and can also alert people of “any hazmat situations that may require evacuation.”

Langley said the total yearly investment for Logan County 911/EMA is $6,000. We found this to be a much more cost-effective solution to a reverse 911 system. When looking into a reverse 911 system the initial total cost estimate started at a minimum of $100,000. We found that for the money Nixle was more cost effective and had additional features that were not included in a reverse 911 system. It also gave the public to opt-in or opt-out.

Langley said, “It can also be used to notify the public of community events [such as] parades where roads will be closed or fireworks, etc. It may [additionally] be used to notify the community of any technical difficulties we may be experiencing in Logan Dispatch [like] phones being down, power outages, etc. Also, the information we send out through Nixle will also be uploaded via Nixle to our Facebook page and website.”

All alerts will be targeted geographically, allowing residents to receive localized, relevant alerts from Logan County 911/EMA. Nixle Alerts can be sent via text, email, voice, web, social media, and the Nixle mobile app in an instant.

The Nixle website shows that they provide four types of messages, including “Alerts (many would refer to this as an emergency type alert), Advisories (less urgent need-to-know information), Community Information (day-to-day neighborhood to community-level information), Traffic (very localized traffic information).”

News reports posted on their site show these alerts have helped save lives in counties using the system by alerting residents about adverse weather and letting them know they need to take cover.

Langley said, “Logan County 911/EMA will have a booth at the Logan County Fair this year. We will be in the Vendor building. We will have information about Nixle that we can hand out and will also be set up with a laptop, so we can assist any residents that may need assistance signing up for Nixle.”

Langley said they are excited about rolling out this program.

[Angela Reiners]