September is National Emergency Preparedness month and the village of Skokie got off to a quick start by running its annual testing of the CodeRED emergency notification system.
According to the CodeRED website, CodeRED is a high-speed Web-based emergency and mass notification system that is used by more than 3,000 state and local entities throughout the United States and Canada.
The village has been using the CodeRED system for roughly five years and running an annual test for the past three years, said Ann Tennes, the director of marketing and communications for the village of Skokie.
“The village was able to source landline phone numbers that are available for every business and residence in Skokie and those were automatically entered into the CodeRED system,” she said.
Along with ensuring the system works, the annual test, held on the second Tuesday of September at 10 a.m., allows the village to purge numbers from the system that are no longer in service. It also gives people who have since moved from the village to remove their cell phone numbers and email addresses from the system.
In the past, the village has used the system to alert residents of major weather related emergencies, according to Tennes, but she said now the village is starting to use the system for much more localized happenings.
“We have, on occasion, begun to use CodeRED emails, not phone calls, to neighborhoods if there is a public safety issue for that particular neighborhood,” she said. “We will go into the database and draw boundaries around that neighborhood to send emails…and they have been more related to public safety issues, not weather related.”
While residents did not have to opt into the system for their landlines to be added, Tennes said they can add additional information to the system, such as cell phone numbers and email addresses at no cost to the residents, allowing for an immediate notification when the resident is not at home.
However, Tennes said a little less than 1 percent of Skokie residents have actually gone on the website to add their information allowing for notifications via text, email and cell phone.
“I live in Skokie and my husband and I have both of our cell phones linked into the system,” she said. “It’s important that people are able to receive information in an emergency quickly.”
There is a link on the village’s website, www.skokie.com, where residents can add cell phone numbers and email addresses.
Alicia Ramirez is a freelance writer for Pioneer Press.
