Last week, many residents of West Spartanburg got an unexpected phone call. The automated voice on the other end of the line was asking residents to help locate an elderly gentleman who had wandered away from his nearby residential care facility. Although the message was basic, it was also effective.
In less than 24 hours, the man was found thanks to a call from a citizen who had received a call from the Emergency Notification System, and reported seeing a man fitting the description. Though puzzling to some who are unfamiliar with the program, ENS works.
In May of 2005, Spartanburg’s Emergency Management brought their Emergency Notification System online. The system is designed to contact businesses and residences in the case of emergency or to relay critical information, calling numbers within a designated parameter. Currently, that area is limited to Spartanburg County.
ENS’ functions are robust. It can be enacted by several agencies within Spartanburg County — Haz-Mat, Fire and rescue, Emergency Management or local Police and the Sheriff’s department. It can inform people of help needed to find someone, of a need to evacuate because of a chemical spill or fire, or a weather incident such as an impending flash flood.
But it also has other uses. In another recent case, citizens in one area were given a warning and some details regarding a person who was conducting a series of break-ins.
In most situations, ENS has a very high success rate, in relaying relevant information and getting the desired, positive results. The call system is essentially a combination of an autodialer — common in many regions of the counry to inform parents of school closings — and a comprehensive database of all businesses or residence, listed or unlisted, that have land-line-based phones
The system does have some limitations, however. It does not have cell phones or voice-over-IP (VOIP) phones or cell-phones in its database, unless they are registered. Robbie Swafford with Emergency Management urges people who do not currently have a land line to register their phone number so that contact can be made in the case of an emergency, such as the need to evacuate.
The process is simple: One simply needs to go to www.scoem.org , the website of The Spartanburg County Office of Emergency Management, and click on the link “First Call Interactive Network.†You can register up to three phone numbers using the service.
Sylvie Galloway is a Spartanburg-based writer and blogger. You can read more of her work at Sylvie is a blogger.
Sylvie Galloway
mom, hairdresser, writer, who is trying to stay one step ahead of marauding dust bunnies.
Well.. That’s what the 4th amendment, tv, radio and the internet are for. I don’t need the local govt calling me, thank you. I did receive a couple test phone calls last year. It kinda freaked me out.
I certainly understand the reaction. I got the call about the guy who had wandered away from the nursing home, and at first I thought it was a telemarketer. But, I see the point of it, and even TV and radio have to include public service messages and test their emergency broadcast equipment from time to time.
It’s still kind of freaky the first time it happens, though. I’d never experience that kind of alert until I moved here.