New Emergency Prepardness App Available for Lafayette Residents

By Alyssa Schnugg
Staff writer
alyssa.schnugg@hottytoddy.com

There’s a cell phone app for just about anything these days. There are apps to balance your budget, pay for parking meters and save a few pennies using online coupons.

Now Lafayette County residents can get an app that could one day save their lives.
Lafayette County Emergency Management has launched the new Lafayette County Community Preparedness App.

This free app is downloadable to any mobile device. The app notifies the user of weather warnings and alerts for Oxford and Lafayette County. It also helps families develop an emergency plan. It provides contact numbers for emergency services, maps that show potential road closures and evacuation routes when needed.
The app can be downloaded for free here or through iPhone’s App Store or Google Play.
“This is an additional resource for our residents to be used along with CodeRED,” said LCEM Director Steve Quarles.
CodeRED Weather Warnings automatically calls citizens and businesses that are in the path of a severe thunderstorm, tornado or flash flood. There’s no app to download for CodeRED.
It’s also used to send general notifications to citizens about important information that may not be classified as an emergency. At times general messages may only be sent as a text message and/or email. Phone call notifications will only be used when necessary.
LOU residents can sign up for CodeRED here, or call 662-234-3879.
Using CodeRED and apps like the Community Preparedness app can often be more helpful than just relying on tornado sirens in the case of a possible tornado.
“They’re generally not loud enough to wake someone,” Quarles said. “Their original intended use was to warn people who were outside to get inside.”
The county has 27 sirens; however several are not wired to be able to communicate back to dispatch whether they’re working or not. Quarles is asking the Board of Supervisors for $77K to upgrade 10 sirens to be able to communicate when there are technical issues.
The sirens are tested at noon on Wednesdays, unless the skies are cloudy so residents don’t think it’s an actual warning.
“It’s also hard to have someone close enough to all 27 sirens to report if they’re going off,” Quarles said Wednesday.
Supervisor Kevin Frye said he feels the money would be “well spent.”
“We need to make sure our sirens are working,” he said.
The Supervisors will consider the request during their budget process this month.

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