Pitt County Government

November 30, 2004

Pitt County’s Citizen Alert System

We’ve all heard it. Just when you were sitting down, preparing to enjoy your favorite show, your television emits a loud, high pitched sound followed by this announcement:

This is a test of the Emergency Broadcast System. The broadcasters of your area in voluntary cooperation with the Federal, State and local authorities have developed this system to keep you informed in the event of an emergency. If this had been an actual emergency, the Attention Signal you just heard would have been followed by official information, news or instructions. This concludes this test of the Emergency Broadcast System.

This broadcast has served as a vital tool to notify the public during emergency situations. However, it has a drawback. If you are at home trying to enjoy some quiet time without all the noise and distractions of television or radio you may miss a very important message. Well, the citizens of Pitt County can now be contacted even if they are enjoying their quiet time. Pitt County Emergency Services, in conjunction with Pitt County MIS, is proud to announce the implementation of the Communicator!NXT system. The Communicator!NXT system alerts citizens using the telephone. If an emergency message needs to be communicated to the citizens, Emergency Services can record the message and, by selecting an area of computerized county maps supplied by the Pitt County GIS division, have the Communicator!NXT system call every phone number in the affected area and play the message. This allows Emergency Services to adjust the range of calls from a small area to the whole county. The system can call approximately 3000 citizens per hour. In extreme cases the system can use a web service to gain access to 500+ lines to place the calls. This would increase the call rate to approximately 60,000 calls per hour.

This can be a vital tool in several scenarios including (but not limited to):

Weather Bulletins/Alerts
Terror Alerts
Hazardous Materials Incident
Area Crime Notifications

The system is still in the testing phase and will be implemented in 2005. This system is just another way Pitt County Government is using technology to serve the citizens of our county. For more information please contact Troy McCarter of Pitt County Management Information Systems at (252) 902-3800.

Thomas Y. Lynch
Public Information Officer
Office of Public Information
(252) 902-2955

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