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Forney’s new emergency phone notification system is scheduled for a test Friday, May 23.
The system, used by other cities and the county, can quickly notify residents of emergencies from tornadoes to a major accident closing a road.
“The Connect-CTY service will be extremely useful to quickly distribute pertinent, detailed information to residents in a number of situations, such as inclement weather, a road closure or flooding,” Forney Police Chief Rick Barnes said
The company handling the system, Connect-CTY, has put together a database of home and business phone numbers from publicly available directories but residents are urged to add their information.
“It’s important for residents to take note of this new service and add their contact information into the system’s database so that everyone can rest assured they are prepared to receive time-sensitive notifications,” Chief Barnes said.
Residents can put in up to three phone numbers and two e-mail addresses for notification and indicate if they have a TTY/TDD device by visiting the Forney Web site (www.cityofforney.org) and clicking on “SIGN UP NOW – SERVICES BY CONNECT-CTY.” Residents with call blocking can receive the city’s time-sensitive calls by adding (972) 564-7300 to their approved number list.
The system first was made available to the Kaufman County cities through the county, said Kathy Morris, the county’s director of emergency services.
Using grant money, the county purchased the system; individual cities, such as Forney, then purchased additional services.
The county system is up and running, Ms. Morris said, but the link on the county’s Web site – kaufmancounty.net – has not been added for residents to add their information.
Other cities are working on their systems.
The school districts offer similar notification through a program at the Region 10 Education Service Center. The Forney school district opted to purchase its own system to allow for greater flexibility, Superintendent Darrell Brown said.
Those in the Crandall, Kaufman, Kemp, Scurry-Rosser and Terrell school districts can sign up for the emergency notification system at flashalert.net.
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| Last Updated: Aug 13th, 2008 - 22:48:38 |
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