Did you receive calls and texts from Wood County officials Wednesday? New mass notification system causes confusion

WISCONSIN RAPIDS − A series of text messages and calls to cellphones and landlines that many residents received Wednesday night about Wood County's 911 lines caused confusion and left some residents wondering if the messages were a scam.

Around 9 p.m. Wednesday, Wood County's 911 lines went down because of a phone carrier issue, said Tony Bastien, Wood County Dispatch manager. The county has been working for several months to install and get ready to use a new mass notification program from Everbridge, Bastien said.

"Last night when lines went down, I thought it was a good opportunity to see how the system worked," Bastien said.

The messages and calls came from a "781" area code, which is in Massachusetts, confusing many people about the legitimacy of the calls and texts. Bastien said the system can be programmed to use a local phone number to eliminate that problem.

The message also asked people to send a text saying "yes" back or to push a number to confirm receipt of the message. The system allows officials to track the number of people receiving an alert, Bastien said.

In the future, the county will likely opt out of the receipt confirmation that went out Wednesday evening. It's something that would be used in life-threatening situations when officials want to know who got the message, Bastien said.

Officials already had a large meeting scheduled for Monday to learn about the details of the new system and how it operates, Bastien said. It has a lot of features, and the county will likely only use a small portion of them to begin with, he said.

People will have many choices as to what types of messages they want to receive. Information on how to change the settings and get in the system, if it didn't call you Wednesday, will be sent out to the public after Monday's meeting, Bastien said.

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Contact Karen Madden at 715-345-2245 or kmadden@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @KMadden715, Instagram @kmadden715 or Facebook at www.facebook.com/karen.madden.33.

This article originally appeared on Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune: Wood County's new notification system causes confusion Wednesday night