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Larry Stanford

Editor

The Yatesville City Council wants to get the word out to city residents about the Upson County Emergency Management Agency’s new Everbridge emergency alert system. The council is urging residents who want alerts sent to them on their computer or cell phone to sign up for the program, and the council is willing to let citizens use the computer at City Hall to register if they need to.

Mayor Cecil Moncrief told the council at their Monday night meeting that he and Council member/Fire Chief Ronnie Riggins attended a meeting about the system.

“If you have a home phone, your home phone is already on the list,” said Moncrief. “So if they have a tornado watch or severe thunderstorm warning, then if you have a home phone, it will automatically alert you.

“If you want a text message, an email, or a ring on your cellphone or ipad or pager or work phone, you need to go online and register with them. We need to do this by the end of the month and get the word out. This concerns fires, road closures, gas leaks, anything that comes up that 9-1-1 finds out about, you will know about. “

Council member Phyl Gatlin noted that a lot of people no longer use a home phone, stating that she doesn’t have one.

“You can go online and get registered. You can put your email address in, or your cellphone, or whatever. Then if anything does come up, you’re notified,” replied Moncrief.

“If you would, let people know. That is something that the county has come up with, and it was paid for with a grant, so it is not costing us anything. We need to have everybody involved in this.

Riggins added that the county will still use its warning sirens, but said they were never intended to alert people indoors.

“We have the emergency warning sirens, but they were always designed primarily to alert people who were outside, not people who were inside their home.”

Riggins asked what residents should do if they don’t have access to a computer.

Moncrief stated they can use the computer in City Hall.

“You all have keys to City Hall. If you find somebody that needs to register, please come up here and register them. People are welcome to come from 9-11 a.m. on Saturday. You can also use the computers at the library to register. This is something that I think will be of great help to let you know if anything is going to take place.”

To register online, go to the Upson County website at www.upsoncountyga.org. Once there, step by step instructions will be listed on the page.