Woodward County (OK)

PENS, the Public Emergency Notification System in Woodward County

The Public Emergency Notification System in Woodward County is a part of the Regional Communications Network, or ReCoN. ReCoN is comprised of: 1) the Emergency Regional Two-Way Communications system; 2)PENS program; 3)First Responder Emergency Notification System; and 4) the School Emergency Notification System (SENS).

For the public, a number of ways of receiving emergency messages is available.

Twitter Alerts

The Woodward County PENS program broadcasts alerts at www.twitter.com/wcoem[1]. Alerts for Woodward County incude: tornado warnings and watches, severe thunderstorm warnings & watches, and ice storm and blizzard warnings. In addition, any civil emergency messages as well as local emergency and road closure information is broadcast here.

Visit the twitter website[2] to see how to get these messages forwarded to your cell phone or email address.

For those in Oklahoma who do not have a public notification system available, an additional twitter website is managed locally and is available, called Oklahoma Alert [3]. All tornado watches and warnings & severe thunderstorm watches and warnings for Oklahoma are posted here as soon as notifications are received, as well as earthquakes above 2.0 magnitude, in addition to worldwide earthquakes above 6.0 magnitude (posted within 20 minutes of the actual event). Active worldwide eruptive volcano information is posted as needed. During nighttime hours (between 10pm & 6am), only earthquakes of 4.0 magnitude or above in Oklahoma, or 6.5 magnitude or above worldwide are posted.

PENS Emergency Notification System

This system allows for targeted emergency notifications to be sent directly to a specialized radio receiver in your home, office or vehicle. This receiver, sold at Radio Shack of Woodward, Oklahoma, is activated by local emergency management officials to notify residents of local hazards or important information.[4]

In addition, residents of Woodward County will soon be able to sign up to receive emergency notifications on their cellular telephones or email accounts. A pilot project for this system will begin in the community of Fort Supply in Spring 2010. Check here for program updates.