People living in Eldridge might notice they're getting a few more phone calls. The city is unveiling a brand new automated telephone technology, meant to save lives during an emergency. It's called 'CodeRED'.
"We heard from some of our elderly residents that they couldn't hear the tornado sirens," said assistant city administrator, James Martin. "The tornado sirens are made to be heard outside. They're not made to penetrate walls, they're not that loud."
But the one thing that does get most people's attention -- is a phone call. That's where CodeRED comes in.
"We can contact them if a tornado siren goes off in the middle of the night," Martin said.
"Generally speaking, you're going to wake up and hear that phone ringing."
As soon as the National Weather Service issues a severe weather alert for addresses located in the city of Eldridge, the CodeRED system automatically begins calling.
"Getting that call and knowing you need to seek shelter immediately, it's going to save lives in the event of an actual severe weather emergency," said Martin.
And, as city leaders soon found out, alerting people to severe weather is only one of the CodeRED "perks."
The city experimented with a practice CodeRED alert, notifying all 1,800 people in the database of a change in garbage pick-up. It works for other notifications, too. For example, if there's a water main break, but only seven customers are affected, CodeRED will send an automated call to only those seven customers and let them know about it.
"Short of knocking on doors, this is a really great way to get a flash alert out to everyone."
City leaders say the next step is getting everybody into the CodeRED database. Residents can either sign up online or by calling the city.
