Haynes: CodeRED alerts come from National Weather Service, not local 911

May 14—At Tuesday's meeting of the Pulaski County Fiscal Court, local emergency officials put out a "CodeRED" alert to citizens: It's the National Weather Service, not local 911, that puts out storm warnings.

Pulaski County Emergency Management Director Don Franklin and 911 Center Director Beverly Haynes came before the fiscal court to help inform the county about how the Code Red alert app functions and to dispel misinformation about who puts out the information people receive through the app.

"There's a lot of misinterpretations of what it is, and I just want to try to get that opened up," said Haynes. "CodeRED is an app or a program that is used to pass along important information to those who have subscribed to it. ... The 911 Center is the administrator of this in Pulaski County. This means that 911 admin staff, not the dispatchers, set up the accounts for agencies and utilities to access and utilize it.

"Each agency and authorized business that we work with that uses it decides when and how to pass that information along with their own specifications," she continued. "This is a great tool for the responders and for the public, and the utilities that we work with — the water company, city gas, and other necessary utilities. ... Any and all of the weather information that is relayed through the CodeRED system comes from the National Weather Service. It does not come through Pulaski County 911. We are not weather people."

Haynes said that after weather events, the local 911 center frequently receives a deluge of calls from individuals who were expecting a warning via CodeRED and didn't get it, or did get one that wasn't relevant, and address local emergency personnel as if they were responsible.

"They use the information that you provide when you sign up, mostly your address, and they send out the notification to the geographical area that is to be affected," said Haynes of the National Weather Service. "A lot of people are upset because they're not getting a notification or they are getting a notification — that's not on 911. ... We have no control over the National Weather Service."

This is also true of agencies such as the Pulaski County Sheriff's Office, City of Somerset Police — both of which, along with other law enforcement entities, often put out alerts about persons reported missing — the utilities, or any other agency that has the ability to send out information through the app. The 911 Center simply serves as administrator of the app, largely in the area of handling subscriptions.

Haynes said that misconceptions have roots in previous county administration, where the emergency manager was also the 911 director. In Haynes' case, she merely oversees the 911 Center; Franklin is the emergency management director and operates separately from 911.

"It's up to him to decide what he wants to be sent out; he has that authority also," said Haynes. "We have the ability to send (information) out, but only under (special) circumstances do we take that, because my 911 dispatchers are answering everyday emergency calls, and when people are calling 911 to complain that the system didn't do what they thought it was going to do, they're taking time away from an emergency that is coming in. ... It's really an influx of calls of people complaining that 911 has nothing to do with."

Haynes also noted that "less is more" when it comes to weather alerts, as events with a comparatively mild "watch" status — as opposed to the far more serious "warning," which implies bad weather is imminent — are frequent occurrences.

"We cannot send out messages of watches. Good grief, we have watches weekly," she said. "... I need people to understand, if they get a CodeRED alert, to pay attention to it, because it is something from the National Weather Service, not from 911.

"It's a great system, and I think we should keep using it, but I need people in the public to understand how it's used," she added. "... We don't think you should be using watches as a notification. Everybody needs to be weather aware ... Spring comes every year."

Haynes also recommended that people purchase a NOAA weather radio as a strong personal means of receiving info about storms, wherever they are.

"They're cheap, they're inexpensive, you can use batteries, and they're very effective," she said. "They're not the tornado sirens that are designed to be heard outside, not while you're inside. The NOAA weather radio is something every household in this county should look at, because it does give you the watches."

Franklin added that there are a number of other cell phone apps that do give detailed information about tornado watch alerts.

Fourth District Magistrate Mark Ranshaw expressed to Haynes and Franklin that he would like to see tornado watches sent out over CodeRED.

"You watch all these videos of all these tornadoes the last couple of weeks; it doesn't hurt to have the tornado watches broadcast so everybody is aware of that situation," said Ranshaw. "By the time we get the phone calls and stuff like that, some of these phone calls are an hour apart. ... Just watch the videos that came out over the last two weeks and you'll understand why and what happens. It's very destructive."

Franklin said that he and Haynes have talked about the possibility of using CodeRED to send out tornado watch notifications — which merely suggest the ingredients are there for a potential tornado, not like a "warning" that means it is likely on the way — but reiterated the "less is more" idea. He noted that Kentucky State Police have very strict criteria for sending out Amber Alerts, and as a result of that, as Franklin recalled, the Amber Alerts have a success rate as high as 100 percent because they aren't over-used.

"If we do it too much, and this is the thinking behind KSP, if every child that gets lost is considered an Amber Alert, people are going to start hearing it so much that they don't pay attention to it. The same thing is going to be true with ... the weather warnings," cautioned Franklin. "... Some of the watches that we have are hours long, so how often are we going to set it off? There are a lot of other things that are involved in that."

Ranshaw said that they should just set off the alert at the beginning of the watch, and said that the National Weather Service doesn't put a tornado watch out "for nothing." People who may not get information from news sources may not be aware, he said, and asked Franklin to consider sending out watch alerts, to which Franklin replied that there could be discussions about doing so, but again stressed that overuse could cause people to pay less attention to alerts.

Those interested can download CodeRED at https://pcoem.pulaskigov.com/codered/.