FREMONT, Neb (KMTV) — Whether its school closures or road closures, most folks are on the look out for the latest information when severe weather is on its way.
But for many in Fremont, the notice they got Monday morning came as a bit of a surprise.
“We chose to do it today because its a snow emergency and we need people to get their vehicles off of our emergency snow routes,” said Lt. Ed Watts with the Fremont Police Department.
It didn’t take long for folks to start posting on Twitter and Facebook that they had received a text with a link claiming to be from the Fremont Police Department.
With the large number of text message scams out there many were hesitant to open the link, but Lt. Watts says this message was legit.
“We started using whats called an Everbridge Critical Event Notification System. In a life threatening event, a missing child or endangered missing adult, or today it was the snow emergency. What we can do is activate the system to do a mass notification,” said Watts
The benefits of the system go beyond just providing a helpful reminder.
Watts says cleared streets means their officers can put their focus on assisting drivers who are stuck or stalled and responding to other emergencies during the storm.
“To be able to get a mass notification out to cell phone users in the area its a big benefit for us. It saves us time from having to get out and contact people to make them aware of the snow emergency route,” said Watts
This new system will be used in the future to keep folks updated on snow related or other emergencies and the Fremont PD says it will always identify itself as the Fremont Police Department in their messages.
