Collin County’s CodeRED Program due for $50,000 renewal

by Bill Baumbach of The Collin County Observer

CodeRED is an automated telephone notification system that the county has used to warn citizens of impending weather emergencies.

In Monday's commissioners court meeting, the Collin County Homeland Security Department will ask the commissioners to approve a $50,663 extension of the Emergency Alert Notification System, also known as CodeRED.

This is the third year of the CodeRED system. CodeRED is an automated telephone notification system that the county has used to warn citizens of impending weather emergencies.

Some past CodeRED system alerts have been criticized because the phone warnings came long after the storms had passed. CodeRed is activated by the county's Fusion center.

In answer to my inquiries, I was told by county Homeland Security officials that the CodeRED system was unable to telephone enough people to stay ahead of a large storm. I was told that there would be refinements made in both the system and in narrowing the scope of the alerts.

They must have narrowed the alerts pretty severely. Since 2008, tornado sirens near my home have sounded twice, once for a small twister less than two miles from my house. Although I am registered with CodeRED, neither time did I get an alert call from the system.

In 2008, after a particularly damaging storm, city officials in Plano admitted that they relied on television news reports, not on the county's homeland security's Fusion Center.