Kane County officials review storm surge response, expand facility-use agreement and urge more residents to sign up for alerts

Kane County’s Judicial and Public Safety Committee on June 11 heard that last week’s line of storms produced an unusually heavy call volume for KCOM and prompted actions to strengthen the county’s emergency response and public-alerting efforts. KCOM Director Scott Gray told the committee the system saw a peak hour of 190 incoming calls around 3 p.m., compared with a typical 35 calls in an hour, producing 331 calls overall and creating 205 calls for service during the surge.

Gray said the storm created temporary radio and CAD outages and that staff and neighboring offices stepped in to maintain operations. “Our highest peak hour was 190 phone calls at 3 pm. Normally we take about 35 calls during the hour,” Gray said, describing a brief CAD outage and thanking radio administrator Andy Bowman and telecommunicators who worked through the surge.

Why it matters: Committee members pressed officials on public outreach and the county’s mass-notification system after Gray said automated channels registered roughly 14,000 message events (the county counts each delivery channel separately). Members asked that alert messages include a short definition of a “watch” versus a “warning” to reduce confusion; Gray said automatic alerts reflect National Weather Service language but agreed to add clarifying notes on county social posts and emails.

The meeting also covered emergency-management planning. An agency official described ‘Disaster Recane’ volunteer committees focused on mass care, spontaneous volunteers, spiritual and emotional care, debris cleanup and animals; the official said the county is piloting a joint emergency-management subscription service for municipalities, with nine communities expressing interest and a projected subscription cost in the $20,000–$30,000-per-year range if at least five join.

Formal action: The committee unanimously approved an amendment to a 2024 resolution that pre-authorizes the county to use private facilities in emergencies. The amended language broadens the agreement beyond shelters to include volunteer reception centers, multi-agency resource centers and points of dispensing, and also authorizes the public health director to use the same pre-approved facility list. The sponsor said the change will reduce the need to ask facilities to sign multiple, similar agreements during a crisis.

Next steps: Officials said they will continue outreach to increase alert system signups and will bring any proposed intergovernmental agreements or budget amendments on the subscription service to the board later this year if communities commit to participate.