Swansea changes way it sends emergency alerts. What do you need to do to receive them?

Swansea residents will have to turn to a different provider to receive telephone-based emergency alerts.

The village on Tuesday announced that it’s switching to Hyper-Reach from the current CodeRed system. Hyper-Reach is already active while CodeRed expires Friday, July 7.

Swansea Fire Chief Christopher Tell said the switch will save the village $2,000 per year. CodeRed cost the village $7,500 annually while Hyper-Reach will be $5,500.

Tell said Hyper-Reach also offers more features.

“The biggest reason for the switch is Hyper-Reach offers more ways to get notices than CodeRed,” Tell said. “CodeRed only offered notifications by landline, cell phone, or text. With Hyper-Reach, you get all three of those plus you can have a URL link to a computer or laptop that sends notifications.

“Also, if you have an Alexa device, you can connect your Alexa device and get notifications through Alexa. You can also receive notifications in English or Spanish with Hyper-Reach.”

Tell said if a resident wants a specific notifications for particular emergencies, like an ice storm warning, Hyper-Reach offers that capability. Additionally, Hyper-Reach can alert people about road repairs and criminal activity.

“With Hyper-Reach, people can register for what specific notifications they want to receive especially with weather warnings — whether a flash flood, a tornado warning, a tornado watch, a severe thunderstorm watch, a severe thunderstorm warning, a winter storm warning, ice storm warnings, etc,” he said. “Code Red did not offer that.

“Also, when the village does notifications if we have a street closure due to, say, a water main break or road repairs or if there’s something the police department wants to get out about criminal activity, they can post videos or photos to Hyper-Reach and let the residents know about that as well.”

Tell said Swansea residents will still receive alerts via CodeRed until July 7. After that, if they want to keep getting alerts, they must be signed up for Hyper-Reach.

“Hyper-Reach offers so much more and saves the taxpayers some dollars,” Tell said.

Residents can download the free Hyper-Reach Anywhere app on their smartphones. The village encourages residents and people who work in Swansea to enroll now using a county address either by calling or texting “Alert” to 618-509-9560 or by going to the website: http://hyper-reach.com/ilswanseasignup.html.

Tell said residents also can sign-up by using either the English or Spanish QR registration code on the Swansea Fire Department’s Facebook page.

Individuals can receive emergency alerts via their Alexa-enabled smart speakers just by saying “Alexa, enable Hyper-Reach” and following the Alexa-provided instructions.

“We’re honored to have been selected by Swansea to provide its emergency alerts,” Sam Asher, president of Hyper-Reach, stated in a press release from the Village of Swansea. “It’s gratifying to be part of an effort to save lives and protect property and we take that responsibility very seriously.”

Other municipalities — including Belleville, O’Fallon, Collinsville, St. Clair County and East St. Louis — are still using CodeRed. Tell said he is not aware of any other metro-east municipalities switching to Hyper-Reach at this time.

“I do meet every Thursday with the fire chiefs form Belleville, Northwest, East Side, Signal Hill, Fairview Heights, O’Fallon and Scott Air Force Base and right now we’re the only community that is switching from CodeRed over to Hyper-Reach,” he noted.

St. Clair County Assistant Emergency Management Agency Director Bryan Whitaker said no changes are in the works for now.

“We are still under contract and satisfied with CodeRed. No one else is switching as far as I’m aware of,” he said.

Other uses of Hyper-Reach include Amber alerts, toxic chemical warnings, and armed shooter alerts. In addition to 911 centers, Hyper-Reach is used by law enforcement, educational institutions, and corporations.