CodeRED test deemed a success

WORLAND — Results from last week’s CodeRED all-call notification drill test were “very encouraging,” according to Washakie County Emergency Management and Homeland Security Director Jeff Schweighart.

CODERED

CodeRED is a notification system used by Washakie County Emergency Management “in the event of emergency situations or critical community alerts” including evacuation notices, bio-terrorism alerts, boil water notices, missing child reports, Amber Alerts and severe weather.

THE DRILL

The all-call notification drill was at 9:05 a.m. last Thursday, Aug. 2 with an 88 percent connection rate out of 5,274 numbers attempted for Washakie County residences and businesses. Schweighart said the all-call notification used the community database from Onsolve, the company that operates CodeRED, as well as anyone who was already signed up for the CodeRED notification through the Washakie County website.

There were 465 numbers that were not reached and Schweighart said that could be due to a number of factors — lines were busy with no voice mail, old numbers in the system or abandoned or out of jurisdiction.

The notification drill also showed that the telephone infrastructure system worked “very well with a peak point of delivery at 700 calls per minute.”

Prior to the test, Schweighart said Washakie County had 68 people who had signed up to the CodeRED Weather Warnings and they saw an additional 90 sign up after the drill notification test. 

“We expect this number to grow especially in light of the increased weather warnings issued by the National Weather Service-Riverton for our area and Wyoming weather impacts, thus far in 2018,” he said.

Schweighart said that according to Facebook posts on July 30 by the NWS Riverton office, Washakie County has received nine tornado warnings in 2018. Wyoming statewide averaged 19 tornado warnings from 2006 to 2017, in 2018 there have been 51 tornado warning issued across Wyoming to date. Thunderstorm warnings this year for the state are at 359 (as of July 30), compared to average 233 between 2006 to 2017. 

Schweighart said he will be conducting future testing of the CodeRED system on a periodic basis but it may not be an all-call notification.

He said he does not want to do too many drills to the point it becomes annoying to those who have signed up. He said tests help ensure performance when emergencies occur.

Schweighart said if anyone missed the call or if they ever want to hear the last alert warning message, simply dial the number back to replay. The notification drill source was from (866) 419-5000.