Fire Chief Jeff Dorhauer announced on Thursday, June 3, 2010, the Osage Beach Fire Protection District implemented AwareUS notification system. AwareUS is designed for geographical locations to receive “real time” awareness for emergencies and information that relate to public safety. Over 90% of the Osage Beach Fire Protection District lacks coverage of warning sirens; this is the most cost effective way to communicate to the citizens and visitors in a time of emergency. AwareUS is a text paging system that will alert the public with information regarding Amber Alerts, Severe Weather, Road Closures, ect. Sign-up for the program is at NO COST to the public.

Implementation of the program will be in three phases. Phase 1 is for the Tri-County area (Camden, Miller and Morgan), which is currently operational. Phase 2 is to include the Convention and Visitors Bureau and Tri County Lodging. These organizations would offer this service to people visiting the area. Warnings or alerts that are seen on television or heard on the radio give you the county the notification affects. Unfortunately, most people that visit the lake area do not know what county they are located in, so they may not be aware if the warning affects them. Visitors would be able to sign up for the dates/times that they are in the lake area, thus not receiving messages once they depart. This program would also benefit the large fishing tournaments in the area by notifying anglers while they are on the water of severe weather alerts.

The 3rd phase would be to include the school districts. During incidents or emergencies at a school, this program could be used to notify parents/guardians and give them instructions on where to go, what to do and/or what not to do.

Chief Dorhauer and the Osage Beach Fire Protection District would like you to please visit obfpd.awareus.com for more information and to register.