Marco's CodeRED gets word out quickly

By Elysa Batista (Contact)

Friday, September 1, 2006

During the hours leading to the arrival of Tropical Storm Ernesto, many Marco Island residents got their storm information from news outlets and the Web.

But it was a call from the city that caught Bawn Clifton by surprise — because she’s in Maine.

“It was a big relief to hear information directly from the Marco town office,” said Clifton, 69, a part-time Marco Island resident. “Listening to TV reports do not give you all the information you really need to answer your questions.”

Clifton is one of 11,306 Marco Island residents and property owners who have signed up for the city’s CodeRED Notification System.

In place since 2004, CodeRED has seen a steady rise in the number of residents signing up for the service.

“In earlier years, we recognized that we needed some means of better communication with our citizens and our property owners that are away for the summer,” said Moss.

He said television and radio communications were minimally effective for residents who were out of town.

“We learned of the CodeRED system and thought it had great potential for us,” Moss said.

The system cost the city about $10,000 to install in 2004 and costs $10,000 per year to maintain.

The program uses computer software to define a geographical area, in this case Marco Island, and then creates a database with all the phone numbers of residents and businesses that have registered to receive the alerts.

A designated person records the message into the system and with a quick click, CodeRED begins ringing phones around town — up to 60,000 households every hour.

“The great thing about CodeRED is that it allows us to get information to a lot of citizens at the same time,” said city spokeswoman Lisa Douglass.

For Tropical Storm Ernesto, the city sent out just one CodeRED message.

“We are very judicious in its use, because we want to make sure that when we use it we have an important message to send,” said Moss. “In this case, it’s why we only used it one time. We could have sent many calls out, but we waited until we had some definitive information.”

Douglass urged residents to enroll in the program and keep their contact information updated, including cell phones and out-of-town numbers, because the service works off the database.

She added that the easiest way to sign up is via the city’s Web site.

Residents can scroll to the CodeRED icon, click on it and fill out a form that will get all their contact information added to the database.

Douglass said the system was a more personalized way of disseminating information.

“And word is getting out,” she said.

Clifton said she found out about the program through a newsletter.

She signed up and forgot about the service until the threat of Ernesto was looming.

Then she got the automated call to her house in Maine.

“I had been watching the Weather Channel and waiting to hear from a neighbor,” said Clifton.

She recommends the program to other Marco residents.

“The program is a 10 in my book,” she said. “Just knowing what’s actually happening or expected to occur while you are so far away is a comfort.”

For more information or to sign up for CodeRED, visit www.cityofmarcoisland.com.