By Jennifer Bacchus
Jacksonville News
At the start of the new year, Jacksonville residents and businesses will be offered the chance to get an emergency alert radio for free.
“Basically, all a resident or a business has to do is fill out a card, which will be mailed out in January. On Jan. 5 we’ll send those out. They will tear off the card, it’s postage paid, and we’ll put them in the system to get a free weather alert radio. There’s no catch to it because yes, it’s free,” said Vanda Holt of Metro Mail & Printing, which has been contracted to distribute the radios.
The program, which is being implemented by the six Chemical Stockpile Emergency Preparedness Program counties – Calhoun, Clay, Cleburne, Etowah, St. Clair and Talladega – will mail a radio out to each household and business that requests one. The radios not only serve to alert residents in the case of a chemical incident, but will also be able to provide weather warnings.
“Back 20 years ago, those old weather radios, they worked for the whole state. If there was a warning down in Mobile or Gulf Shores, we got it up here. The new system is entirely different. This system, not only can they be used for weather radios, but for the county only,” said Dan Long, director of the Calhoun County Emergency Management Agency.
Long listed the many alerts the radios can be programmed to receive from hazardous material emergencies to Amber alerts or weather warnings.
In Calhoun County, the program is split into two phases. Phase one, which is scheduled for January through March, will be to get the radios out to homes and businesses in the Protective Action Zone, which includes any portion of Calhoun County not in immediate danger during a chemical incident. The city limits of Jacksonville fall completely in the PAZ, as does much of the immediately surrounding area.
The areas closer to the Anniston Army Depot, which the Calhoun County EMA call the Pink Zone and the Immediate Response Zone, will be offered the radios during phase two, which is scheduled to begin in April of 2009.
Homes and businesses in the Pink Zone and IRZ already have tone alert radios, which have been in place since the depot began their work to disarm the chemical stockpile. During the summer of 2009, however, after phase two has been fully implemented, the EMA plans to deactivate the tone alert system.
“We’re taking something away, but we’re giving you something better than what you have,” said Holt.
The entire program is estimated to cost $3.5 million, but Long believes it will be a cost-saving measure in the long run due to the decreased cost of the individual radios and a decrease in the maintenance costs.
“It costs about $3.5 million to do it. It’s 125,000 radios,” said Long, adding he is anticipating a $4 million savings over the life of the program.
Response cards should be mailed out in January and must be returned before March 31, 2009, in order to receive a radio.
“They will have from January 5th until March 31st to fill that card out and then we have until the end of April to distribute to all those cards that came in during that time. So, come March 31st that’s it. We will not be able to receive any more cards,” said Holt.
The cost of the program is covered by federal funds through the Department of Homeland Security and Federal Emergency Management Association. For more information, call Metro Mail at 237-7843 or visit their Website at www.earready.us.
