County Updating Emergency Update System

SCHOHARIE — The Schoharie County Office of Emergency Services (OES) encourages the public to sign up for an emergency services database in order to get important information in case of emergency.

The Verizon 911 database the county receives weekly to update phone numbers only includes home/landline phone numbers and associates these numbers to 911 addresses. The Office of Emergency Services currently does not have a way to receive cell phone information from carriers, and even if it did, it would not connect the phone numbers with 911 addresses.

Schoharie County recognized that many people got rid of their home phone numbers after Hurricane Irene, and we met with Information Technology to discuss the importance of reaching as many people as possible during emergencies. In 2012, Schoharie County Information Technology developed the Cell Phone Registration for Emergency Notification, which allows people to register their cell phone number(s) to their 911 address. The County conducted a large public awareness campaign, and many people registered their cell phones.

“We recently had to send a mass notification to the southern part of the county and had horrible results since many people have done away with their home phones and only use a cell phone. We also realized that many of the cell phone numbers that were registered to 911 addresses are no longer correct. This happens when people move or get new cell phone numbers and forget to change their address/cell phone number in the system,” said OES’ Emergency Manager Colleen Flynn.

The county is currently working on contacting every cell phone number in the system to ensure that the number still belongs to the 911 address for which it was registered. 

“This process is going to take a while, but residents should know that this is NOT a spam call, and we are just looking to verify or update their information. It is important that residents return calls if they receive a message about this. We want to ensure that we are providing important information to residents in emergencies, and if they have not updated their information, they will not receive these calls,” Flynn said.

She added that the county also recently updated our Cell Phone Registration for Emergency Notifications flyer (attached again for your reference). OES has sent this to all County employees and community partners and have posted it on all Schoharie County Facebook pages as well as the County website. 

“We have provided flyers to the Schoharie County Office for the Aging, Department of Social Services, Mental Health and Department of Motor Vehicles to have on hand for clients to take. We also have these flyers posted in all our Public Transportation busses and vans,” she added.

If people want to add a cell phone(s) to their 911 address, they can scan the QR code on the flyer or go to https://www2.schohariecounty-ny.gov/EmergencyNotifications/ where they will either log in using an existing account (those that have already registered) or register for a new account. Once logged in, the system shows users the location(s) and phone(s) associated with their account. They will also be able to make changes to their 911 address location(s) or cell phone number(s) if needed.

If residents do not have internet access, or they want to add or change their 911 address or cell phone number, they can call the Office of Emergency Services and ask for Colleen Flynn, Emergency Manager and I will help them.