“Do You Know Your Zone?” New Way to Tell Washington County Residents Exactly When To Evacuate

In case there is an alert or notification from the county about where you live, do you know which is the zone you live in? If you have no idea what I'm talking about, neither do most your neighbors.

Introducing a New Way to Inform the Public in an Emergency

Washington County has implemented a system using numbered grids and an app called Genasys Connect to help the get the word out when there is information like an evacuation order that needs to get out to residents.

In the past this has been done using reverse 911 to notify people on their phones, and this grid and app will continue to work with the current system. How this can help is it gives you a chance to check what is going on in your area through the app.

Staying Informed: The Reliability of Alerts

This is important information to be aware of in something like a wildfire threatening homes or a shooting in the area.  With this app, you can see if it is threatening the zone where you live and you can see what part of the city is effected.

The Genasys Connect app gives another option to alert people in the event of a disaster and can help organize the city using the grid system. It will improve the ability of first responders to contact the public.

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You can download the app on your phone using the playstore. It will walk you through how to see any alerts for your area. Washington County is the first to roll out this out with other counties in Utah soon to follow.