Missed an emergency alert call? Kerr County’s new system will let you call back and hear it

Kerr County residents who miss an emergency alert phone call will soon be able to call the number back and hear the message right away, under a free upgrade to the county’s new Everbridge alert system.

The Kerr County Commissioners Court voted unanimously Tuesday to ratify the upgrade to the county’s Everbridge contract. Sheriff Larry Leitha said the feature should make alerts much easier for the public to get.

“It’ll be very much easier for the public,” Leitha said.

From CodeRed to Everbridge

The county still uses CodeRed for emergency notifications, but Leitha said CodeRed will be phased out in February, and the county is using the time until then to transition to Everbridge.

Under CodeRed, residents who miss an alert call have a hard time getting the message back, Leitha said.

“It’s awful difficult to get the message back,” he said.

Everbridge already lets residents call back after a missed call, but they currently get a code and must call again with that code to hear the message. The new feature, which Everbridge is adding at no cost, skips that step.

“You just call back and you automatically play the message,” Leitha said.

The change applies only to phone calls. Residents who get alerts by email or text can still read those as usual.

County Judge Rob Kelly noted that while the feature is free, the county does pay for its Everbridge contract.

“These are just free features on that contract,” Kelly said.

Going live soon

Leitha said the county has a meeting with Everbridge on Oct. 15 and recently received the phone number that alerts will come from. He said he hopes the system will go live after that meeting and that he will let the public know when it does.

Once it’s live, the county plans a campaign to get residents signed up.

The upgrade comes as Kerr County works to strengthen its emergency warning network after two years of deadly flooding, including the outdoor warning sirens the county now owns and operates along the Guadalupe River.