This is a Reverse 911 system. Normally when there is a problem, 911 is called. This system will not replace 911—but will enhance it. Greene County Alert System is where Sheriff’s dispatch calls those endangered to give an alert. The system is free of charge, but requires enrollment to receive them warnings.

We have been working on this project for over three years securing funding and then setting the system in place. This has been a joint project of cooperation between, Greene County Emergency Management Agency, Greene County Sheriff, Greene County Health Department, and Greene County Local Emergency Planning Committee (LEPC). Reverse 911 is the third part of the Warning Triad for Greene County. The triad consists of outdoor warning sirens, weather alert radios, and now Reverse 911.

Reverse 911 is an economical way of Warning and Notification. Outdoor warning sirens are extremely expensive and costly to maintain. Weather alert radios are usually indoors and cannot be heard outside.

The addition of Reverse 911 to our existing Warning and Notification methods will enhance our ability to notify Greene County’s residents of dangerous conditions by providing an all-hazards alerting process. (See Attachments.) The Reverse 911 system will also allow for more information to be provided directly to your phone in the event of an emergency, rather than just a siren. 95% of the population carry cell phones. We can alert people wherever they are--especially at crowded sporting events like ball games.

One other plus in this system is, if an enrollee travels to another part of the state, for example Indianapolis, they can get the alert while away from home.

Also, we are better able to alert our rural population that cannot hear the outdoor warning sirens from the cities and towns of the county. Now our rural population can be directly notified in those areas where the sirens could not be heard before.

This system will allow Greene County Sheriff’s Dispatch to have the ability in times of dire emergency, to send certain warnings over all cell phone towers in the county through the Integrated Public Alert Warning System (IPAWS).

This system is especially beneficial with tornado season around the corner and the Eclipse in April. This enhances our warning capability for these events. Sullivan got hit hard in last March’s Tornado, and we want to be better prepared.

We do not expect immediate perfection. We are still learning the system, but we felt it was better to start working out the “bugs” now.