Johnson County EMA sends first heat emergency message

The brutal temperatures this week prompted Johnson County Emergency Management to use the Code Red Notification call system for a heat emergency.

EMA says it's sent out calls of warning for severe weather including thunderstorm warnings, tornado warnings and the blizzard in January of this year. When officials got word this is likely the hottest week for our area in five years, EMA decided to send out the warning to people in Johnson county.

“I think it's great. There's one method you can reach a large number of people with the same consistent message,” said Steve Spenler, Director of the Johnson County Ambulance Service.

The voice recording sent to residents on Tuesday is about a minute long. It advises people of the heat warning in effect until Thursday evening, tells them to stay inside, drink plenty of water and check on anyone who might struggle in excessively high temperatures.

Listen to the heat warning here: johnsoncountyheatwarning

“I don't think we've had a heat emergency quite like this,” Spenler said.

Residents in Johnson County say they appreciated the extra warning, but many say the danger is apparent by simply stepping outside.

“You get so cold in the air conditioning and then you come out here and you can't breathe,” said Emma Stapleton of Iowa City. “I heard it's going to be worse than they expected.”

Johnson County Emergency Management says the voice recording reached about 40,000 phones. The system automatically calls many landlines and numbers listed in the phonebook. Anyone who is unlisted or uses a cell phone needs to register for the service free online.

Click

here to register for the Code Red Notification System.