KFVS12 News & Weather Cape Girardeau, Carbondale, Poplar BluffSouthern Illinois counties turn to e-notification system for disaster alerts

Southern Illinois counties turn to e-notification system for disaster alerts

By Carly O'Keefe - bio | email

IL (KFVS) - When storm sirens sound or disaster strikes, emergency management personnel say your cell phone could be the link to relief.

Franklin, Hamilton, Jackson, Saline, Union and Williamson counties as well as the City of Du Quoin will soon have their Nixle systems up and running.

"The sky's the limit as to the messages we can put out," said Jackson county EMA deputy director Shawn Priddy.

Especially when those skies aren't so friendly, EMA workers say Nixle, a new community information service provider, will be offer another way to get critical information out county wide or focused to a single neighborhood. The e-notification system is similar to Twitter, but is authenticated and secure so residents know alerts are coming directly from emergency management officials.

"It would have been good in the flooding two years ago when we did the recommended evacuations," Priddy said. "This service is geographically based, so we could have limited it to that area or when we rescinded the evacuation, there were some problems because we had rescinded it and still, several hours later there were people loading up U-Hauls. We had to send teams out door-to-door to let everyone know."

Emergency management officials say natural disasters like the flood of '08, the ice storms and May 8 wind storm, plus multiple man-made catastrophes like the Tamaroa train derailment or the anhydrous ammonia spill over the summer emphasized the need for an instantaneous alert system to warn folks of dangers in their area.

"The most recent incident was the hazardous materials spill on Highway 51, and in that case we would have been able to put out specific evacuation information for that area," said Du Quoin ESDA Coordinator David Searby. "We could have got out the road closure information and the detour information. That would have meant multiple times we could have used it during that one incident alone."

Ideally, Nixle will put disaster preparedness in the palm of your hand.  Emergency management officials hope it will help the public make it through whatever Mother Nature--or bad luck brings to the region.

"It makes all the difference in the world to get all the info you can out in a disaster, this is just one more tool in our toolbox," Searby said.

Franklin, Hamilton, Jackson, Saline, Union and Williamson counties as well as the City of Du Quoin have or will soon have their Nixle systems up and running.

To sign up for Nixle in your area, click here.

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