March’s severe weather forces Madison County to change emergency notification system

by Randy Pierce • Based on a recommendation from its emergency management agency director, Fred Patterson, a resident of Troy, Madison County is ceasing its utilization of the “Code Red” notification system and replacing it with a service provided by a company called Everbridge Inc., based in Vienna, Virginia, effective May 17.

The county board, at its most recent regular monthly meeting, voted unanimously to support the awarding of a mass notification system agreement to Everbridge for a 12-month period at a cost of $33,837.60, the lowest of three different proposals sought by Patterson.

Code Red of Annapolis, Maryland had submitted a price of $38,625 and another similar provider, Hyper Reach of Saint Laurent, Québec, Canada gave Patterson a quote of $61,125.

Patterson, in presenting his recommendation to the county board public safety committee earlier this month, said what prompted him to pursue this change is related to storm alert issues that occurred in March, causing him “to lose confidence” in Code Red.

The “very disappointing” situation, as he shared it, included severe thunderstorm conditions that occurred on March 11 during which Code Red did not issue an alert to many people who should have been notified. Other difficulties had surfaced just four days after that.

Code Red has been part of the Madison County notification process for about 12 years, according to Patterson, something he inherited in 2022 when he took over his current position then backed staying with “for continuity purposes” since then.

There is some overlap with St. Clair County, immediately to the south, Patterson said, regarding this system which is particularly significant in Collinsville which has territory which lies within both it and Madison County. 

St. Clair County will also be transitioning to Everbridge as part of this process, this provider under contract now with the Illinois Emergency Management Agency. Patterson added that he is familiar with Everbridge as a result of his previous employment with the federal government, noting this company handles coverage of many areas including partnering with the state police in Iowa. 

The county itself, he continued, does not actually originate the launch of any storm alerts, which are strictly handled by the National Weather Service. The one which happened on March 11 was apparently not announced by Code Red as would have been expected.

“I contacted their service department,” Patterson explained. “Apparently there’s groups or areas that weren’t alerted and that is troubling.”

“In theory, if I am pushing something out, I need to know that the body of this component is trustworthy enough to be able to push things out in a manner that I need to launch them,” Patterson went on, “then when you have that lack of confidence, that’s where I’m at right now and that’s why I’m switching.” 

Elaborating on the component factors regarding this matter, Patterson said Code Red had been bought out by another provider called OnSolve then a merger with one called Crisis 24 took place.

This resulted in a change in the way Code Red operated, as he explained further, no longer being specific to the home addresses of the people who are notified on their cell phones and thus connected to it but instead encompassing a more general geographical area.

The problems have since been fixed by Code Red but not to the extent that Patterson has regained enough confidence after the missteps in early March, with him also explaining there have been similar failures reported by people in other areas.

Terry Eaker of Bethalto, chairman of the committee Patterson presented this information to, praised the county EMA director for being proactive, “You grabbed the bull by the horns and took care of it. I appreciate it.”

Patterson further pointed out that the county may have been “overpaying” for the service it received from Code Red, the totals quoted in the bids received exemplifying this. 

Everbridge’s online information states its service enables response “instantly to critical events with real-time alerts and instructions sent via SMS, email, desktop and voice” while noting its clients throughout the nation include one annually gaining attention as it did earlier this month, the Boston Marathon.