News Photo by Steve Schulwitz Alpena County Emergency Services Director Kim Elkie works at her desk at the 911 center on Monday. Elkie is asking people to sign up for the new CodeRED emergency alert system so they can receive warnings and updates about local emergencies.

ALPENA — It is vital for residents in Alpena County to receive quick and accurate information about potentially dangerous situations, and Alpena County’s CodeRED notification system has the ability to notify the public of any threats or hazards.

However, so far, CodeRED has been slow to catch on, and only about 300 accounts have been activated by people who want to receive the direct notifications.

There are about 22,000 people in Alpena County, so there is plenty of room for growth and utilization of the new emergency alert platform.

CodeRed is free for people who sign up.

CodeRED is a nationwide emergency alert system that delivers real-time updates from your local public safety officials and allows them to customize the information they want to share. From severe weather, missing persons, to road closures and water service updates, emergency service personnel in the county can forward the most detailed and vital data to subscribers.

Alpena County Emergency Services Director Kim Elkie said previously, the 911 center would have to wait for the National Weather Service to issue advisories, watches, and warnings before notifications were sent out and the local alarm system sounded.

The CodeRED system allows the county to create a library of customized alerts, such as notifying of a traffic light that isn’t operating or for flooding.

CodeRED also has the flexibility to send alerts out in multiple forms, such as via voice, SMS, email, the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System, and the CodeRED mobile app.

Elkie praised the new system for its simplicity and ability to give counties more flexibility in what 911 wants to distribute when compared to the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS), which is through the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Elkie said 911 is handcuffed to a certain degree with IPAWS because certain criteria and events must meet FEMA’s criteria before alerts go out.

CodeRED alerts will also be issued when the county’s alarm sirens are sounded to explain what the alarm warnings are for.

Elkie said notifications will not be sent out when the horns are tested at 1 p.m. on the first Saturday of each month.

Elkie said the ice storm in Alpena County is the perfect example of why having and utilizing CodeRed is important. She said with the loss of power, little internet, and circumstances and developments changing by the minute, information could have been released en masse to the public. Instead, only a few received the updates.

“We receive so much ire from the community for not having better communication and getting more information out during the storm, and I own that,” Elkie said. “However, if we don’t have buy-in from the people it makes it harder. CodeRED could have helped more people find out more about the shelters, the door-to-door check and hanging something white on your door if you were OK. It could have made it much easier for us to get critical information out to more people if more people were signed up.”

Some smaller emergencies, like a car crash, road closure, or non-functional traffic signal are not able to be sent out via IPAWS, Elkie said.

“We’re actually quite limited in what we can send out with it,” she said. “CodeRED allows us to send out whatever we need to, within reason.”

Elkie said people can sign up to receive CodeRED alerts by texting ALPENA to 24639 and entering some simple information. People can also follow a link to the CodeRED sign-up page on the Alpena County 911 and Emergency Management page.

Elkie said people who register for a CodeREd account can add friends and families to their accounts, so they also receive the alerts when they are issued, so they can remain safe if there is an emergency.

“You just set it and forget it, until you need it,” she said.

Steve Schulwitz can be reached at 989-358-5689 or sschulwitz@TheAlpenaNews.com. Follow him on X @ss_alpenanews.com.