In severe weather, knowledge is safety. Sign up for Tift County’s emergency notifications in English at tiftcounty.org. Tift County is exploring how to provide the emergency notifications in Spanish as well.

TIFTON — Tift County is looking into implementing emergency weather announcements to be additionally broadcast in Spanish.

County manager Jim Carter reported at the May 13 county board of commissioners meeting that commissioner Melissa Hughes, who was unable to attend the meeting, had expressed interest in making the accommodation for the county’s Hispanic population.

Carter stated that that public safety director Joey Fowler had contacted Everbridge, the service that organizes the county’s emergency broadcasts, about setting up the dual announcements. He was told that the system currently is not equipped to transmit automated calls in Spanish, but that Everbridge would continue looking into the matter of creating an additional service for residents interested in having their alerts be in Spanish.

Additionally, he said that Mark Wool, the warning coordination meteorologist for National Weather Service Tallahassee, had informed him that the organization was testing the provision of severe weather alerts in Spanish at some of their offices.

The Tallahassee office was not one of them, but Wool has agreed to make a push for further involvement in the program.

Carter reported that Wool and Fowler would both remain in contact about future developments and expected to hear more by the end of the week.