Baldwin County joining ALERT FM radio notification network
http://blog.al.com/live/2011/02/baldwin_joining_alert_fm_radio.html
Published: Tuesday, February 08, 2011, 8:43 AM Updated: Tuesday, February 08, 2011, 11:18 AM
By Guy Busby Press-Register
BAY MINETTE, Alabama -- Baldwin County will soon join other area counties in a radio alert system covering all of southwest Alabama during emergencies, state and county officials said Friday.
The ALERT FM emergency notification system is being expanded to include Baldwin, Bibb, Choctaw, Clarke, Conecuh, Escambia, Monroe and Washington counties, said Laura Ashton, Alabama Emergency Management Agency spokeswoman. Mobile County was one of the first regions to be added to the network in 2010.
The system uses special FM radios to notify local agencies and residents during an emergency, said Melvin Stringfellow, director of the Baldwin County Emergency Management Agency. According to Stringfellow, program representatives will meet with Baldwin officials during the week of Feb. 21 for training. He said the network should be in place a short time after those sessions.
The program will send out alerts for government agencies and the public. Residents can buy a monitor at area hardware and electronics stores that will allow them to receive notices, Stringfellow said.
"If there’s an Amber alert or weather warning or the school board puts out something about schools being closed, they’ll be in the loop," Stringfellow said.
The system in other areas of the state includes agencies such as law enforcement and other emergency personnel as well as schools and weather services.
The monitors can now be programmed to pick up alerts from the National Weather Service, Stringfellow said. Before more programs are added, however, local agencies have to work out how the notices will be sent out.
Some notices, such as information on school training sessions for teachers, will not be on the public notification frequencies.
"We don’t want it to be overused where people turn it off and stop listening to it," Stringfellow said. "That way, when there is an alert, they pay attention to it."
The Alabama Emergency Management Agency is setting up the state program with money from a Remote Community Alert Systems Program grant from the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration and National Weather Service, according to Ashton.
In 2010 ALERT FM began in Mobile, Dallas, Greene, Hale, Lamar, Marengo, Perry, Pickens, Sumter and Wilcox counties.
Stringfellow and officials from the seven other counties where the system is being added met Friday with representatives from Global Security Systems, the operator of ALERT FM to discuss setting up the system.
The radios can be programmed for different regions of the state, so that a person in another part of Alabama could take his or her monitor to the beach, enter the Baldwin frequencies and be warned if emergencies take place in this area while they are on vacation, Stringfellow said.
Alabama EMA Director Art Faulkner said the additional eight counties will have the system in place throughout the southwest area of the state.
"We are pleased eight additional counties are able to benefit from this grant provided by the National Weather Service." Faulkner said in a statement. "ALERT FM will help more residents stay informed during natural or manmade disasters."