Bartholomew County officials are urging residents to sign up for the Everbridge alert system for their phone, text messages or e-mail. That’s after county dispatchers were late to sound the tornado sirens during the severe weather a week and a half ago.

Ed Reuter, director of the county emergency operations center, told the County Commissioners this week that the dispatchers on duty were overwhelmed with storm damage calls, along with normal business, the night of April 28th. Dispatchers were so busy that they didn’t hear the National Weather Service alert calling for a tornado warning. The county’s tornado warnings have to be hand triggered by dispatchers.

Reuter suggested several moves to make to ensure that doesn’t happen again. But he also urged you to sign up for the automated Everbridge alert system. Reuter said that the Everbridge alerts for tornado warnings are automatically sent out, independent of what is happening in the dispatch center.

You can sign up for Everbridge alerts online at bartholomew.in.gov or by calling 812-379-1500.