Peabody sounds a Code Red

PEABODY – It’s called Code Red, and the new city emergency message system received favorable reactions from Peabody residents this week.Billed on the city’s website as a critical community alert system, Code Red allows city officials to make a single call to alert residents about emergency situations, including evacuations, bio-terrorism alerts, boil water orders and missing children.”I think Peabody residents and the business community will appreciate this new service. It allows them to get important and timely information sent directly to their home phone, email or mobile device,” said Mayor Ted Bettencourt.Bettencourt unveiled Code Red with a call midday Tuesday to residents asking them to enroll in the new system.The call to 24,835 local telephone numbers reached 16,149 residents. Bettencourt’s chief of staff, Christopher Ryder, said follow-up calls to the unanswered numbers, including one planned for June 15, will be aimed in part at eliminating out-of-service numbers.Residents can log onto the city website, www.peabody-ma.gov, and fill out a Code Red information form that asks for their name, address, and mobile phone and email addresses.Carla Pereira of Peabody said Code Red sounds like a more reliable source of emergency information than online or television news sources she currently uses to get updated weather or other information.Maria Simoes’ parents live in Salem and rely on that city’s version of Code Red for updated information affecting local residents.”They love it, and I think it’s a good idea,” Simoes said.Simoes suggested the city provide confidentiality assurances for local residents’ phone and mobile device numbers logged into Code Red, but privacy protections don’t worry Peabody resident John Willey, who said he appreciates Code Red’s values during bad weather.”It will be good to know if I have to get around something,” he said.Ryder said this past winter’s snowstorms impressed upon Bettencourt the need for a reliable, instantaneous and informative local messaging system capable of reaching residents.He said Code Red is designed to allow Bettencourt or city department heads to send out citywide messages, or target messages to neighborhoods or even specific streets.”If there was an emergency parking ban issued by the public services director, an all-call Code Red alert would be sent to every resident and business owner in the city. However, if there was a water break on a side street in West Peabody, the director could target a Code Red notification just to the neighborhood which is affected by the break,” Ryder said.Bettencourt said upcoming city infrastructure improvement projects, including “a major redesign of Peabody Square,” will make Code Red an effective tool for informing locals about traffic restrictions and detours.”It is things like that, in addition to emergency notifications and big community events, that the service is designed for,” the mayor said.