Durham 911 won't answer the phone now, do you really think they'd send this signal out before it was glaringly obvious that there was a disaster in the making? If you have a wreck, better call *HP , the trooper could be there from Wake Forest before 911 picks up the phone. Don't bother telling them you're following a drunk driver that just ran 3 people off the road either, "all officers are busy right now".

Steve, I have one of these radios and they are great. I have mine configured for just Durham county. Mine has the SAME technology. I wish I had it configured for Wake county also when the Apex chemical fire happened. I was wondering if I would have gotten an alert on that system.

durham is already in crisis/disaster why call them to remind them?

While the intentions expressed in the article are probably good, I feel other technologies could be better suited for this purpose.

The National Weather Service and the Federal Communications Commission have invested billions of dollars into it's "All Hazards" alert infrastructure. There exist a myriad of devices capable of receiving these radio alerts. Many can be programmed to only alert for specific events, and for specific counties.

A county or city-based "Reverse 911" system would only serve residents of a single county. Encouraging residents to purchase (perhaps subsidizing) these radio receivers would provide advance warning of severe weather and other dangerous situations at little or no ongoing cost to the county.

These radios can be purchased for under $50 at most electronics retailers.

More information about the radio alert system is available here:

http://www.weather.gov/nwr/