Emergency Management, Search & Rescue

Making the News

Linn-Benton ALERT

Monday, March 08, 2010, 9:30 a.m. BENTON COUNTY, OR – Benton Co\r\n\r\nBenton and Linn Counties have joined together to offer a new public safety service to its residents.\r\n\r\nLinn-Benton Alert is a notification system that can call or message residents to warn them of impending or occurring emergencies as well as provide critical life-safety instructions when they are needed most. The Linn-Benton Alert will be used only to deliver public safety messages. In many cases residents already will be aware that there is an emergency situation, and the Linn-Benton Alert allows public safety officials to provide crucial information about what people should do in those situations.\r\n\r\nExamples of situations where public safety officials might use the alert system would be to provide emergency safety instructions in a hazardous materials accident or natural disaster; to alert residents in a geographic area of a missing child or person with dementia; or to alert a neighborhood to a dangerous person at large in the area. \r\n\r\nThe Linn-Benton Alert system is an address-based system that will send alerts to landline telephones (both published and non-published numbers) in the zip code areas in Linn and Benton counties. Residents should understand that when they receive the telephone call it is a computer generated message, but should not hang up. Instead, they should listen to the message in its entirety for the important information.\r\n\r\nLinn County Sheriff Tim Mueller states “We have partnered with Benton County as one more way to provide and strengthen our response to community safety in both counties.” Benton County Sheriff Diana Simpson agrees stating “The Linn-Benton Alert system is another innovative tool in our all-hazards and multi-layered approach to emergency preparedness.” The City of Corvallis is also a partner in the notification effort.\r\n\r\nLinn and Benton County residents will also be able to subscribe to receive these messages, with options to select and prioritize multiple phone, e-mail, text and TTY devices to receive the alerts. In other words, those residents with only a cell phone may elect to register with the system in order to receive the alerts. Residents can indicate in which manner they would like to receive emergency alerts by registering in the on-line database. For example, an individual may choose to receive alerts primarily as a text to cell phone message, even if s/he has a landline telephone as well. Persons interested in emergency alerts in Linn and Benton county, who are not residents are also encouraged to sign up for the service. For example, a parent of a university student may register to receive emergency alerts for the area their son/daughter resides in. Linn-Benton Alert messages will identify which agency is issuing the alert, what the warning is about and how urgent the message is, as well as provide instructions for the listener.\r\n\r\nMany organizations already are using emergency alerting systems to help them get messages to their members and the rest of the community quickly. Oregon State University and the city of Lebanon both provide similar services. The Linn-Benton Alert system is funded for three years with grant contributions through the state of Oregon and local government funds. Subscriber and land-based information is protected and not sold or shared with any other organization or individuals. For more information or to sign up, those interested can access the Linn County Sheriff’s Office web site at http://www.linnsheriff.org/ or the Benton County Sheriff’s Office web site at http://www.co.benton.or.us/sheriff/. Read more …

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