Can 911 call you? Yes, it can.
Recent Pahranagat Valley High graduate Izzy Riera is currently working on his Eagle Scout project to create a Reverse 911 system, specifically for all of Alamo, but also tied in with the county’s existing emergency CodeRED system.
Sheriff Kerry Lee said Riera is “trying to get more people signed up for it. CodeRED will call home numbers but not a cell number unless it is registered in the database, and therefore they don’t receive an emergency call.”
Riera’s project is to register people with their home phone, cell phones, emails, text messages, correct addresses, etc. so that if an emergency occurs, as many as people as possible can be notified.
To register, go online to the county’s website, www.lincolncountynv.org, click the link for the sheriff’s department, then go to the CodeRED link.
In Pahranagat Valley, contact Derek Bowman at (520) 906-7373 or email derek.pvvfd@ilovepv.org
Although Riera’s project is focusing specifically on Pahranagat Valley, the CodeRED system covers the whole county. Lee said he is able to target specific areas with calls related to an emergency. “No need to call Ash Springs for an event north of Pony Springs, and we can limit it that way, or we can call by zip code or address, etc.”
Reverse 911 is a public safety communications technology used by organizations in Canada and the United States to communicate with groups of people in a defined geographic area.
The system, which is a database of telephone numbers and associated addresses, is capable of delivering customized pre-recorded emergency messages directly to a select set of telephone-service subscribers, homes, businesses, live individuals and answering machines.
Riera said the project was suggested to him by former Las Vegas firefighter Lonny Walch. “He was the one who recommended it and as he explained it a bit more, I liked the idea and I just went for it.”
Lee said when he heard of the project Riera was proposing, “I highly encouraged it, because it will allow more people to be called who may not have been previously because, for instance, their cell phone or email or whatever else was not in the database.”
If an emergency occurs, the sheriff’s department, fire department and/ or county emergency management office will be informed and can make the recorded message and begin the automatic call sequence.
Lee noted if a call is made, but your phone happens to be busy, “Usually it will call you back later. I can set the system on how many times I want it to try. Usually it will try one extra time. And I get a printout after the list is completed showing how many numbers were called, how many connections were made, how many busy signals and how many answering machines. Then the busy signals will be tried again.”
Riera is attending as many local events as possible to have people sign up in person. He said, “I need to have this project completed by August 18, and if I don’t get what I need this way, I’m going to have to go around door-to-door with some volunteers and fellow Scouts seeking to register people.”
