Sign Up for Hyper-Reach notifications on your cell phone or land line with the
Hyper-Reach Emergency Communications Network
It’s FREE and Easy.
(Cell phone charges may apply.)
Or, you can sign up for Hyper-Reach by calling 270-594-5839. An automated system will walk you through the sign-up process.
Please note:
If you signed up your cell phone number prior to June 30, 2017 for CodeRed alerts (which Henderson County EMA contracted with before switching to Hyper-Reach), you must sign up again with the Hyper-Reach Emergency Communications Network. CodeRed will not release cell phone numbers to Hyper-Reach.
If you have a traditional land line, you are already signed up to receive Hyper-Reach Emergency Communications.
Emergency officials unveil new alert system
Director urges locals to sign up for ‘Hyper-Reach’
As seen on Page 1A of The Gleaner
Tuesday, July 4, 2017
DOUGLAS D WHITE
DOUG.WHITE@THEGLEANER.COM
In a true emergency, seconds count and communication is vital.
With that in mind, the Henderson County Emergency Management Agency has contracted to provide a new alert system called “Hyper-Reach” that spans almost any form of communication you can think of — text, telephone by voice, email and even TTY/TDD for the hearing impaired.
The system is meant to help safeguard local residents and alert them to local emergencies, weather hazards, disasters and other threats. But officials need the public to opt in — or sign up — for the alerts to make it useful.
“Our job is to protect the citizens of Henderson County as effectively as possible,” said local EMA Director Larry Koerber, but “this is the only way we can alert people.”
“We encourage all Henderson residents and businesses to go to one of the following websites: www.hendersonky.us, www.cityofhendersonky.org or www.hendersonema.org to register for this county provided service. The Hyper-Reach logo will be located on each website.”
Using your computer, double click on the ‘Hyper-Reach’ link on any of those three websites and then follow the instructions. You can enter contact information including additional phone numbers and also optional text and email addresses.
How you want to be reached or alerted, “all that is on the registration form,” Koerber said. People can choose multiple options if they wish, or only one.
The registration screen even has a box to check if you would need assistance during an evacuation.
A release by the Henderson County EMA office states, “If you do not have Internet access, please contact a friend or family member to help add your contact information to the emergency database. You can also call the Henderson EMA Office at 270-831-1250 for assistance.”
According to an EMA press release, “Hyper-Reach provides Henderson with access to the Wireless Emergency Alert system developed by FEMA enabling broadcast text messages to most mobile phones.”
Koerber stressed that in this day and age, “it’s the cell phones we really want to get. For many people, cell phones are all they have.”
The new system is an improvement over the current system being used here, Koerber said, and has more features -such as the Integrated Public Alert & Warning System, or IPAWS, which allows you to get alerts from other areas served by Hyper-Reach when traveling or out of your home area.
The new system, which costs roughly $8,000 a year to cover Henderson County, is being tried out this first year in “hopes we get a lot more participation” than the last system, Koerber said.
“Anything we would want to alert the public at large about, this is the avenue to get that done.”