BATH

Sagadahoc County residents can call 911 to get emergency assistance.

The county can use its newly acquired CodeRED emergency communications system to let residents and businesses know quickly about a potential or occurring emergency situation.

On Monday, the county will test its CodeRED system by sending out a county-wide non-emergency message. The test call will help officials determine how many phones can be reached.

The system is voice-activated. If you receive the phone call, you must say “hello” before the message will start.

In this initial test, the system will only call those homes or businesses identified in a nationwide database with landline listings, as well as those that have already signed up additional numbers via the county’s emergency management website. Residents and businesses can get their home, business, VOIP or cellphone numbers included in the database, said Misty Mixon, the county’s Emergency Management Agency director.

“No one should automatically assume his or her phone number is included,” Mixon said.

She urged individuals and businesses to log onto the county website, www.sagcounty.com/government.html, and follow the link Sagadahoc County Emergency Management Agency and Board of Health link to the “CodeRED Community Notification Enrollment” page.

“If your phone number is not in the database, you will not be called,” the director said.

Sagadahoc County officials and emergency responders are excited about this additional communication option.

“We like that this system can be used for an emergency broadcast throughout the entire county or can be pinpointed to let residents in a particular area of town know there is a hazmat incident and a need to shelter in place or an area that needs to be evacuated,” Mixon said. “We see CodeRED as an effective tool in getting the word out to our citizens and businesses of Sagadahoc County.”

For those residents without Internet access, they can call 443-8211 to supply their information over the phone. Required information includes first and last name, street address (physical address, no P.O. boxes), city, state, ZIP code and their primary phone number. Additional phone numbers can be entered as well.

Forms detailing this information will also be available at each town/city hall throughout the county.

Anyone with an unlisted phone number, or who has changed a phone number or address within the past year, or who uses a cellphone or VoIP phone as a primary number, should register for the alerts. Multiple telephone numbers can be attached to a single physical address.

A CodeRED app for the iPhone is already available. The Android phones will soon have a CodeRED app of their own in the coming months.