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Wentzville officials hope that more city residents catch wind of a new program that will keep them informed in emergency situations and about city news.

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The Wentzville Information Notification Delivery or WIND system lets residents get city emergency information or city announcements through their cell phones or other devices. Residents can sign up to participate for free.

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Wentzville Police Lt. Dave Stewart said the notifications can be made to telephone land lines and cell phones. They also can be made in the form of text messages and emails to devices residents designate. A computer-generated voice provides messages on telephones.

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The program uses the Internet and was activated in August. Its already been used to notify residents in a number of emergency situations and help the community respond.

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“We used this week in the case of the missing man,” Stewart said. Thomas Trapp, a 70-year-old Wentzville man had been missing since Dec. 23 after telling his wife he was going for a walk. He later turned up safe in a homeless shelter in St. Louis.

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Stewart said the system can be used to notify residents of traffic accidents and traffic hazards, water outages, road closures and alerts.

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Public announcements of community events, city meetings and parks and recreation events are other examples.

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“It’s not as useful for weather-related events such as storms and tornados,” he said. The system notifications go out quickly but sometimes not even at quick as storm occur.

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The system has the capability to reach specific parts of the city where announcements may apply, Stewart said. But it can’t reach unincorporated areas.

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Its use of the Internet means that the system doesn’t rely on a large server and other equipment including additional phone lines required by the Reverse 911 system it replaced.

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Residents can choose to receive announcements in one way or in a combination of ways. They can be sent to cell phones, work telephones and via text message and email. 

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But residents have to select emergency alerts or from a menu of public announcements, not both.

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The information given to the city will only be used for the announcements that residents want to receive. It won’t be distributed elsewhere, city officials say.

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If residents don’t sign up, they will only receive emergency notifications on traditional home phones but nowhere else. Residents with unlisted telephone numbers will not receive notifications without enrolling.

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Any cell, work or email address changes have to be done by residents. Landline information will be automatically updated.

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Residents can enroll at the city’s website at www.wentzvillemo.org or at city hall at 310 West Pearce Blvd. For more information, call 636-327-5101.

Tags: Announcements