When emergencies hit Great Falls, alerting the public is a high priority but sometimes sharing that information can be difficult.
However, there’s an app designed to solve the problem and potentially save your life.
“When CodeRED goes off, everybody goes, ‘Oh my goodness, what is that?’” Cascade County Disaster and Emergency Services Coordinator John Stevens said.
Through the app, notifications about disasters such as floods, fires, AMBER Alerts, or boil water advisories can all be available at the tips of your fingers.
The app is three years old, but has only been used in one instance: the 2016 Vinyard Fires.
“We were having a fire that was really crossing jurisdictions, going from county to rural fire departments to city fire departments and you had the Sheriff’s Office involved and the police department involved,” Stevens said.
With the help from emergency agencies across the county, Stevens can activate a CodeRED alert when needed.
But Stevens said he does not want to abuse it. He wants people to know that if a code red alert is sent out, it is serious.
“Every time there’s a high wind warning or every time something small and you put it out on code red, it lessens the effect," he said. "You get to the point where your phone’s going off and you look at it, it’s code red, and you say, ‘Oh it’s a high wind warning’ and you get just complacent about it."
The app is available on all smartphones. You can sign up to receive emails, phone calls, or texts by clicking here.
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