Teton County To Test Reverse 9-1-1

Teton County Emergency Management plans to test a prospective reverse 9-1-1 solution for Teton County and the Town of Jackson next Tuesday starting at noon and lasting up to one hour. Emergency Management Coordinator Rich Ochs explains reverse 9-1-1 is a technology that allows local emergency services to call land-line telephones in geographically targeted areas to relay important information such as evacuation orders, flash flood warnings, hazardous materials events, and more. As yet, he says, neither Teton County nor the Town of Jackson currently has reverse 9-1-1 capabilities.  Ochs says reverse 9-1-1 was used for those living in the path of the forest fire in Colorado, but it proved not to be a satisfactory method for alert if used exclusively.  He says statistically, a community is lucky to reach 50% to 80% of those intended because people may be at work, it’ll go to voicemail and they may not get the message for a day or two – so it needs to be used as a part of emergency communication.  Tuesday’s call will identify itself as a test from Teton County Emergency Management and solicit comments or questions about the test.