Sykesville is negotiating an emergency notification system that town leaders say is sorely needed.
“Right now, in the event of an emergency, we have no way ofcommunicating with our residents in a timely fashion,” said Matthew Candland, town manager.
Candland said town leaders have talked about purchasing such a system for a few years. Recent disasters, including Hurricane Katrina, have helped communities realize they must better prepare in case federal aid is late.
“We have to be prepared to be somewhat self-sufficient before emergency aid gets to us,” said John Williams, Sykesville?s police chief. He added, “The question is, how do you put a price tag on it?”
The tentative initial price tag is $10,000. That?s the amount allotted for a CodeRED emergency notification system in Sykesville?s fiscal 2006-07 budget.
The system could call all the telephone numbers in Sykesville within minutes and provide residents with emergency information and instructions. Potential messages could alert residents to evacuate during a flood, or boil water if the system is contaminated.
“We are looking at partnerships with one or two other jurisdictions, to decrease the cost for each municipality,” said Williams, adding the timeline for purchase and the total costs under a partnership versus Sykesville going it alone are still uncertain.
Williams said CodeRED is mobile since it?s Web- and telephone-based, with messages going out from a satellite location, which would help if a disaster affected the entire region.
“We learned early on that you need backups,” said David DiGiacomo, vice president of operations at Florida-based Emergency Communications Network, the makers of the CodeRED system. DiGiacomo said CodeRED is triple-redundant, in case one of its locations is temporarily non-operational. He added that the system is used daily to alert communities of everything from missing children to hazardous material spills.
Candland said Sykesville is also exploring, including a question on its upcoming telephone survey, asking if the towncould use an emergency notification system for purposes other than an emergency, “we could create a database of people who voluntarily sign up to get information on town announcements and events.”
Hurricane Katrina
Sykesville Police Chief John Williams said Slidell, La., with a population of roughly 25,000, warned residents to evacuate with the CodeRED system for three days before the arrival of Hurricane Katrina, resulting in an 80 percent voluntary evacuation rate. The city, on Lake Pontchartrain, experienced no fatalities, despite being hit by a 23-foot title surge on top of already extensive flood waters.
