Navajo County Emergency Management Coordinator Catrina Jenkins monitors a storm cell Sept. 2 at the Navajo County Complex in Holbrook. She is among those touring the county this month, encouraging communities to promote enrollment in the Ready Navajo County crisis alert system.
One of the best known versions of the classic folk tale Chicken Little labels as paranoid the story’s main character, who is believed by townspeople to have an overblown fear of impending catastrophe and is considered a nuisance for trying to incite an unreasonable fear of doom in his neighbors.
In stark contrast, Navajo County’s Emergency Management team can and should be appreciated as anything but a bother. The department launched its revamped mass emergency notification system, Ready Navajo County, in July with significant improvements over its Reverse 911 system predecessor to communicate county alerts to citizens and businesses during emergencies and other critical events.
With Arizona’s volatile Monsoon season drawing to a close at the end of this month, and with the current El Niño weather phenomenon predicted to be one of the strongest on record for this winter, County Emergency Management Director Mary Springer and County Emergency Management Coordinator Catrina Jenkins felt there was no better time to begin promoting safety awareness.
“It’s really good timing right now because September is National Preparedness Month,” said Jenkins. “One of the precepts for Preparedness month is ‘Be Informed.’ The Ready Navajo County system allows people to have direct, accurate, timely information from the source, whether it’s a fire or an evacuation, and it’s real-time. We will get (the alert) out as fast as we can verify the information as accurate,” she said.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s community safety awareness campaign is organized by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Families and citizens are encouraged to plan ahead to stay safe and communicate during the disasters that can affect their neighborhoods.
“We are going to city and town council meetings, as well as Chamber of Commerce meetings, civic organization meetings like the Lions Club in Heber-Overgaard, and asking for folks to sign up and encourage their friends and neighbors to sign up.”
Jenkins pointed out that the Ready Navajo County alert system has quickly become a standard, garnering the attention of other county emergency management agencies, even at the state level.
“Mass notification is a universal need. From rural Arizona to the metropolitan Phoenix area, people need information to save their lives. The state and other counties are actually looking at their mass notification systems and, since we were the first out of the gate with this system, we were able to present it and get input on a bid process. Some of the other counties see the benefit of these types of systems,” she noted.
“This system has so much more functionality than our previous system. Our previous system worked; a few years ago we were able to catch a stabbing suspect. He was on the loose in Linden and had asked an unwary resident for a ride. Not knowing he was a suspect, the husband gave him a ride, and the wife was able to call the sheriff’s office, provide them with a vehicle description, as well as the route of travel, and they were able to catch the suspect. So these systems do work,” she said.
The county’s emergency management protocol includes not only alerting citizens of crises, but also providing practical interim supplies and assistance throughout its course.
“If we have an electrical failure, someone on dialysis, for instance, needs to know because it’s time sensitive for these folks. If their heater is not on in the dead of winter–and we’re expecting an El Niño winter with lots of rain and snow–it’s going to make a big difference whether or not someone’s heat will be off for an hour or if it’s going to be longer, requiring them to relocate to a warming shelter that we set up,” Jenkins pointed out.
“A few years ago in Heber-Overgaard someone (disabled an electrical) transformer and caused a major power outage in that area in the middle of winter. We have a lot of retired folks (in that area) that, for medical needs of one kind or another, or because they (warm their homes) with electrical and not fuel-based heat. We set up a warming station at the firehouse, and they were able to go get hot chocolate, a snack if they needed to; just have a nice warm place to be.”
Jenkins highlighted that the real-time functionality of the Ready Navajo County alert system’s interface allows her team to distribute timely safety directives as critical situations progress and are resolved. As an example, she related, “After an evacuation, we can send a message out, ‘All is well, you can go home now,’ which is important because not everyone stays close to the community during an emergency. Some persons travel out of state or to wherever they can go to be safe, but they do not always go to the (designated) shelters.
“With this system users can have the information sent to email or cell phone. People can choose the order in which they get notified. If they want messages to alert their email first, then cell phone, then landline or any of those combinations, alerts are customizable according to their preference. Our old system didn’t let us do any of that,” she said.
“Help us help you. That’s what we want to do. We want to make sure that all our citizens are safe, secure and happy. We’re here to make that happen.”
To register for free Ready Navajo County alerts, visit the county website at navajocountyaz.gov and click the Ready Navajo County Registration hyperlink under the Quick Links menu.
