Lincoln Parish’s “sirens song” is about to go away.
Instead of the sirens, which are currently positioned around town, to alert citizens to bad weather, city officials are urging people to sign up for the free CodeRED Alert System, which Mayor Ronny Walker said can alert all citizens about upcoming severe weather.
“We found that the CodeRED that we have is much more efficient and quicker than the old fashioned sirens,” Walker said. “Plus everybody in every corner of our city can get the CodeRED alert, while the sirens don’t cover the entire city.”
Walker said another benefit of CodeRED is clarification.
“The other thing is the sirens — people call them tornado sirens but they’re really bad weather sirens,” he said. “They can’t tell you what’s coming. The CodeRED can tell you what’s coming — high winds, flooding, tornados, whatever it might be. They’re much more efficient.”
Walker added that the sirens have to be set off manually, and CodeRED is automatic. Also, CodeRED alerts can be received on a landline, a cell phone or even an iPad.
“We feel like we’ll be able to cover our city better,” Walker said.
CodeRED has is a free service and, other than severe weather alerts, will send information out about street closures, emergency information, and any other alerts to its citizens. Other examples include evacuation notices, bio-terrorism alerts, boil water notices and missing child reports. To sign up, click HERE.
