By Annie McCallum
The Roanoke Times
ROANOKE, Va. — A new alert system intended to warn Roanoke County residents about emergencies will go live Sept. 1, and in the meantime people can begin signing up for the system. During the past several months, county officials have been testing the system, known as RoCo Alert.
Last month a test alert about an escaped inmate was inadvertently sent not just to a small test group, but to 30,000 households in Roanoke County. The system automatically reaches about 60,000 landlines, but residents can also sign up using cellphone numbers.
Elaine Carver, the county’s acting IT director, apologized for the mistake to officials during a Tuesday board of supervisors meeting. Carver said officials had tested hardware and infrastructure and were in the process of testing how to actually use the software when the mistake occurred.
“As with most things new, when you introduce the human element, sometimes you have a mistake, and that’s exactly what happened to us,” Carver said. She added that additional training and safeguards are now in place. “We do believe we’ve taken steps necessary to prevent another incident like the one that happened on July 31,” she said.
RoCo Alert uses landline telephone numbers in the county’s 911 database to automatically notify residents of an emergency. But Roanoke County residents can also set up an online account to receive emergency notifications via email, cellphone and VoIP telephone numbers.
The system costs $31,328 with an annual maintenance fee of $27,642. Officials said the idea behind implementing an emergency alert system is to save lives. County Administrator Clay Goodman said Joplin, Mo., had an alert system through which they were able to give residents some notice of the severe tornado that ripped through that area.
“Supposedly because of that notice, they were able to keep the casualties much lower,” Goodman said. “They believe they were able to reduce the number of deaths and people injured.” Officials said RoCo Alert will not be used daily and will be used only during severe emergencies. For example, officials said, alerts could have been used after the severe windstorm in June and July to alert residents to operational cooling shelters.
It could also be used when evacuations are necessary. In other news, the supervisors also unanimously voted to approve first readings for ordinances to raise the county’s occupancy tax to 7 percent and establish rules and regulations for residential chicken keeping. A public hearing and second reading for both ordinances will be held Aug. 28.
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