St. Johns County: New emergency notification system to launch in February

ST. JOHNS COUNTY, Fla. — St. Johns County will launch a new emergency notification system on Saturday, Feb. 1, replacing the Code Red notification system.

The Alert St. Johns emergency notification system is being launched to enable St. Johns County, the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office, the City of St. Augustine, and the City of St. Augustine Beach to quickly provide residents with critical information.

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Critical information may include severe weather, unexpected road closures, water advisories, missing persons, evacuations of buildings or neighborhoods and incidents that may threaten public safety.

The State of Florida bought this new emergency notification system for all 67 counties. St. Johns county is one of many that will be launching this program at no cost to the county.

Each county will own and operate their alert system. Alert St. Johns will be managed by the Emergency Operation Center and used by several different local agencies.

“We are sort of the background managers of the system,” St. Johns County Emergency Management Coordinator Kelly Wilson said. “The City of St. Augustine, St. Augustine Beach, St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office, St. Johns Fire Rescue, and St. Johns County Utilities are all going to be users of this system. We call them ‘launchers.’”

Each of these agencies will have the ability to send alerts for a public safety issues. Some issue examples Wilson gave were evacuations, boil water advisories, missing persons or suspects on the run.

“We will never use this system to advertise,” Wilson said. “We will only use it for public safety-oriented items. We’re not going to use it to tell you about a fair or anything else like that.”

Since 2006, the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office has paid for the Code Red alert system out of their budget. Since the new system is funded by the state, it will save taxpayer dollars by about $15,000 each year, according to the county.

Click here to sign up for time-sensitive emergency alerts

Those who sign up can choose to receive notifications via a phone call, email or text message.

For more information regarding the Alert St. Johns emergency notification system, call (904) 824-5550.

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