Johnson County makes nearly 40,000 reverse 911 calls

Nearly 40,000 Johnson County residents received a reverse 911 call Wednesday afternoon as part of the county's annual test of its CODE RED emergency messaging system.

The test gives the county an opportunity to scrub its existing database of numbers belonging to people now living outside the area.  The exercise also gives those who have just moved into the area a chance to sign up to receive the emergency calls.

Of the 39,970 calls that were made, 22,187 were connected. After recalling the non-connects, the total connection rate reached nearly 64%.

The technology allows them to call notify residents of an emergency situation close to their home or business, said Dave Wilson, emergency management coordinator for Johnson County.

“We've used it for everything from Alzheimer's patients who have wandered away [and] we can use it for missing or abducted children much like the Amber Alert network,” Wilson said.  “We can use it for hazardous material gas leaks, floods which obviously we used it right after we bought it. It's pretty limitless to use.”

For example, Wilson said the last time the county used Code Red was when snowmobiler Marty Davis went missing in Linn County earlier this year. Calls were sent to those living near the area Davis went missing so residents could be on the look out for him.

“We try not to overuse it because then it becomes like the siding salesman who calls every night at 6 during dinner time,” Wilson said.

The Johnson County Joint Emergency Communications Center and the Johnson County Emergency Management Agency encourage businesses and students to add their information into the system's telephone database.   Signing-up can be accomplished by logging onto the www.johnson-county.com, going to the emergency department sub-heading and following the link to the “CODE RED” page.

Those without Internet access will be able to give their information over the phone by calling 319-356-6762 and leaving a message including name, street address, city, state, zip code and primary and alternate phone numbers.

Since Wednesday's CODE RED call, over 160 new subscribers signed up for the emergency notification service.