Emergency Management Agency

Columbia County Emergency Management Agency maintains a high level of preparedness, to protect the citizens of Columbia County; to mitigate loss of life and assets prior to, during, and during the aftermath of a disaster; and to facilitate the recovery of Columbia County in the mid and long term intervals following a disaster.

Columbia County's Emergency Management Agency (EMA) has the responsibility to coordinate all County emergency response plans. EMA's responsibilities are to identify vulnerabilities, effectively mitigate disasters, public education, plan for all-hazard emergency situations, ensure continuity of government and business, and to facilitate an effective recovery. Columbia County EMA coordinates with local, state, and federal agencies, as well as private entities to develop, maintain, and implement the Emergency Operations Plan. EMA supports and manages the County's Emergency Operations Center.

EMA also provides training opportunities and resources to assist citizens with every day or seasonal safety.  

Emergency Notification System Information

The Columbia County Sheriff’s Office, Emergency Management Agency, Engineering Division, Water Utility and GIS Department have come together to provide a proactive, cost efficient and effective public notification system.

Certain situations warrant notification of people based solely on their physical location. Some examples of these situations would be missing persons, suspects’ at large, hazardous material releases or spills, dam failure, civil emergencies, water service interruptions, severe weather situations, emergency road closures and other important information. The CodeRED Emergency Notification System provides us with immediate, map-driven communication that seamlessly combines all phone and GIS data to rapidly deliver incident-related information or instruction to target audiences. This system also has full TTY/TTD capabilities, ensuring messages are delivered to the hearing impaired.

Currently, the Emergency Notification System already includes both public and unlisted landline telephone data; HOWEVER citizens must register mobile phones, SMS Texting, VoIP phones (voice over IP or internet phones) or email addresses in order to receive these notifications based on validated county addresses. Please follow the instructions listed below to register these devices.

Sign up for the CodeRed Notification System.

Fill in the fields for your contact information. NOTE: Only those who have not previously registered with Columbia County need to complete the registration link. Also, you only need to register Mobile phones, SMS texting, VoIP phones and email addresses. All land lines (published and unlisted) are already included in our notification system)

Severe weather alerts are selected by default. Just deselect any notifications you do not want to receive

Once you check the box stating that you agree with the terms and conditions, click ‘Verify Information’ to continue your registration. You can create a ‘Managed Account’ with a password or you can just submit your information

If you added an email address, you will receive an email confirmation from noreply@coderedweb.com. NOTE: (an email address is not mandatory to register with this system unless you choose to have a ‘Managed Account’)

Notifications received on your phone will display the following numbers on your caller ID. Please add these numbers to your mobile phones so that you will know that CodeRED is notifying you:

         ~ General notifications affecting your residence: 855-969-4636

         ~ Emergency notifications affecting your residence: 866-419-5000

         ~ Weather warning alerts in your area: 800-566-9780

If you have any questions or need assistance, please call (706) 868-3303 during normal business hours or email the Emergency Management Agency.