The Black Hawk County Emergency Management Commission has contracted with Emergency Communications Network, Inc., of Ormond Beach, Florida, for its "CodeRED" high-speed telephone emergency notification services. The CodeRED system gives county and city officials the ability to deliver emergency telephone notification/information messages to targeted areas, a city or the entire county at a rate of up to 60,000 calls per hour.
The web-based enrollment in the CodeRED emergency notification system is free. Online enrollment begins April 15, 2009. The system will go live July 1, 2009 in Black Hawk County.
All individuals and businesses are encouraged to log onto the Black Hawk County website, (www.co.black-hawk.ia.us) and follow the link to the "CodeRED Residential and Business Data Collection" page. Cedar Falls residents can use the link found on this page. Required information includes first and last name, street address (physical address, no P.O. boxes), city, state, zip code, primary phone number, and additional phone numbers (optional). The cities of Cedar Falls (www.cedarfalls.com), Evansdale (http://evansdale.govoffice.com), Hudson (www.cityofhudsonia.com), La Porte City (www.laportecityia.com) and Waterloo (www.waterloo-ia.org) have links on their home pages also. You can connect to these websites from any computer that has Internet access, including public use computers at libraries. If your phone number is not in the database, you will not be called during an emergency.
Street addresses are needed to select which phone numbers will receive emergency notification calls in any given situation. Your street address is also needed to receive emergency notifications on your cell phone.
Also included is the CodeRED Weather Warning service, which automatically places calls when the National Weather Service issues a tornado, flood, and severe weather warning. Any resident who registers their phone number(s) will receive the CodeRED Weather Warning alerts unless they choose to opt-out of this service. The CodeRED Weather Warning specifically calls those registered people who live within the warning’s polygon that is drawn by the weather service.
No one should automatically assume his or her phone number is included. All residents and businesses should register, including individuals who have unlisted phone numbers, who have changed their phone number or address within the last year, and who use a cellular phone as their primary home phone. If after registering, you move within the county but keep the same listed or unlisted phone number, you will need to update your address in the CodeRED database via the CodeRED web link.
Questions should be directed to the Black Hawk County Emergency Management Agency Office, 319-291-4373 (M-F, 9 AM – 5 PM).