by Kate Shunney
In an emergency situation, getting reliable information you can use in a timely way can be a literal lifesaver.
Morgan County’s Director of Emergency Services wants county residents to get that information through a new free program called Smart911.
Smart911 is an app-based emergency alert system that will replace Morgan County’s previous platform, Everbridge. 
Director of Emergency Services Jason Hoover said the switch will officially happen on July 1, but residents can sign up now to receive local emergency notifications.
“It gives us more flexibility,” Hoover said of the new product.
Unfortunately, residents who were signed up to get Everbridge notifications won’t have their information migrated to the new app, so all county residents interested in the alerts will have to register anew.
The link to sign up is at https://www.smart911.com/smart911/ref/reg.action?pa=morgancountywv
This article contains a QR code that readers can scan to be taken to the signup as well.
Hoover said Smart911 is a Motorola product – the same company that supplies the Morgan County 911 Center with emergency communications equipment.
The notification app can integrate with the 911 center in case of an emergency call, bringing up personalized data if users share it in their app profile. For example, Smart911 will let a user specify if a resident of their home is diabetic or has some kind of special medical requirements. Those details aren’t necessary to sign up for alerts, Hoover said.
“People can put as little info or as much as they want,” he said.
Hoover will work with the 911 Center to train staff at using the app’s features, including sharing public information like road closures, high water areas or hazardous conditions.
“Anyone who lives close to railroad tracks, U.S. 522 or flood zones – they need to be signed up for this,” Hoover said.
He noted that hazardous materials travel along local rail lines and on U.S. 522, so alerts can be important in case of spills or crashes.
Other alerts can include weather-related hazards, planned highway closures for construction and emergencies in certain areas of the county.
There is a menu of alerts a user can opt into – from location-based alerts that are tied to the current location of a mobile phone, or subscription-based alerts tied to a fixed location. Users can registered multiple locations if they have property in more than one place. Hoover said because Smart911 is a widely-used emergency alert system, it can travel with a user and give them severe weather alerts, for example, while they’re on vacation elsewhere.
User information is held on Smart911 servers and are not visible to county staff or the company’s employees, said Hoover.
Anyone with questions about Smart911 can call Hoover’s office at 304-867-3145. He said his office will attend local community events to spread the word and offer help signing people up to the notification system. The Morgan County Public Library has also agreed to be a place where people can get face-to-face help registering for the system’s alerts.
The app is available to anyone, not just Morgan County residents. Once signed up, a user can add emergency contact information, choose what types of alerts they will receive and how, can add details about the vehicles they drive and even the pets in their home. All of the features can be managed through the profile settings.
Hoover said the tool is very versatile and he encourages all property owners, residents and even visitors to utilize the system. He plans for the county to harness this system and use it more frequently than they used Everbridge, and in a targeted way.
