Jackson Co. has wireless system for emergency notifications

JEFFERSON - Jackson County now has a 21st Century way of alerting the public to an emergency situation...such as a tornado warning.

Steve Nichols said it will be much faster and less expensive to operate than the warning sirens the county has been using, and it will be even faster than the reverse 911 system that has been employed and utilizes cell and land line phones, text messages to cell phones and emails.

Nichols added it comes at no cost to the county because grant money is paying for the system.

"The system, operated by Inspiron Logistics and nicknamed WENS, Wireless Emergency Notification Systems, allows features we have not had in Jackson County in the past," Nichols said. "Our past emergency notifications were by sirens throughout the county which are limited in coverage and very costly to maintain. Our other system was reverse 911 which was slow to process information to the community and very costly for its usage."

Nichols added, "With the injection of this new-wave system, we are bringing emergency notifications in Jackson County up to date with these capabilities. We will be able to send emergency-generated messages to our county in a matter of minutes. It also allows the National Weather Service to alert our citizens in a geographically defined area to receive notifications of dangerous weather almost instantaneously."

The database for Jackson County has been copied for all land line phones and will be entered automatically in the system.