After the tornadoes of April 2011 ravaged Dade County and took out the south part of Trenton entirely, Dade Emergency Services Director Alex Case takes high winds seriously. In his special broadcast today about the dangerous weather blowing in this weekend, Case urged county residents to do the same, and specifically to sign up for Hyper-Reach, the emergency warning system the county is using now.
"It's free, it's easy but you have to opt in," said Case.
Back in 2011, the warning system in place was Code Red. Readers may not want to assume that because they were signed up for the old service, they are signed up for the new one. In his broadcast, Case demonstrated how to access Hyper-Reach from the county's website, dadecounty-ga.gov. Here's a direct link to the signup sheet:
https://secure.hyper-reach.com/comsignupw.jsp?id=55641
Simply enter your name, address and cellphone or landline number and specify whether you want voice or text alerts or both.
Case also demonstrated how to get the Hyper-Reach app for your cellphone.
In his video, available on the county Facebook page--here's a link to that
https://www.facebook.com/DadeCountyGA/videos/564807011029697/?epa=SEARCH_BOX
--Case said his department was mounting a special watch on Saturday, monitoring the storm as it moves in from the west. "That helps us to be prepared as it comes," he said.
"People need to really listen to Alex," said County Executive Chairman Ted Rumley. "This will be the difference in bad and good."
He said that warnings from Code Red saved many lives in 2011, when only two people died in Dade County though the toll was much worse on the Alabama side of Sand Mountain.
