GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ) – Brown County residents near an emergency situation can now learn about the danger simply by looking at their phone.
Emergency Management officials announced Tuesday that a smartphone app called ‘CodeRED’ is now live in the county.
Residents who download the app are able to select whether they want to receive notifications via text, call, or email.
Emergency Management Director Jerad Preston says those alerts range from emergency notifications such as large natural disasters to general notifications such as a power outage or water main break.
When the need to notify people arrives, Preston says the county’s 911 call center will determine which users are contacted, based on proximity to the issue.
Preston says CodeRED will be an asset to his department as it allows emergency personnel to potentially reach hundreds of thousands of people in a matter of minutes.
He also hopes the app will reduce the number of non-emergency calls received by 911.
Brown County became the 23rd Wisconsin county to use CodeRED when it allocated $11,000 for the program in its 2017 budget.
Residents can sign up for alerts by either downloading the ‘CodeRED Mobile Alert’ app on their smartphone or by visiting https://public.coderedweb.com/cne/en-US/BFEA3E5120F4.
Preston says the app has two different versions: one that is free and one that costs $0.99. He says the pay version allows users to still receive notifications when they are out of the county.
