Eureka Residents Have Early Warning System

When a line of storms moved through Eureka at midday Monday, the city’s residents may have been startled, but they weren’t surprised.

Just seconds after the National Weather Service (NWS) issued a severe thunderstorm warning for the area, Eureka’s CodeRED emergency notification system automatically sent telephone and e-mail alerts to local homes and businesses. Those warnings provided an important early warning and gave residents time to prepare.

CodeRED is a “reverse 911” system that allows city officials to quickly contact residents in an emergency. chief and emergency management director Michael Wiegand said the system is an important step in alerting residents to weather-related threats or other emergencies. “The system allows us to telephone citizens in targeted areas of the city in case of an emergency situation that requires immediate action, such as a boil water notice, missing child or evacuation notices.”

Eureka was the first St. Louis County community to have an emergency alert system programmed to deliver weather warnings automatically. According to CodeRED president David DiGiacomo, the automated system is linked directly with the NWS.

“The only way to make a warning fast enough is to remove human interaction,” DiGiacomo said.

"When a severe weather warning is issued for the area, CodeRED can process it and begin sending out notices usually within three to five seconds,” he said.

The system also automatically filters out warnings that don’t apply to Eureka, for example, a warning issued for north St. Louis County. “That cuts down on the number of false alarms and helps avoid the ‘cry wolf’ problem that can lead to people ignoring warnings,” he said.

City officials also can create their own emergency messages to deliver either to the entire community, pre-selected groups or by neighborhood.

Wiegand, Eureka Mayor Kevin Coffey and Eureka's board of aldermen began developing the system with CodeRED in 2008, after many residents complained that they could not hear warnings from St. Louis County’s emergency siren system. The system can send warnings to landline and cell phones, as well as deliver messages via e-mail.

Individuals, households and businesses with a Eureka address can sign up for warnings from the Home page of the city’s website. Simply click on the CodeRED icon near the bottom of the page and follow the instructions.