Adams County uses new emergency alert system during Juniata Shooting

JUNIATA, Neb. (KSNB) - Neighbors wouldn’t have known to shelter-in-place during the Juniata Shooting on Tuesday night if it wasn’t for the new Adams County emergency alert system. They installed it less than a month ago but the shooting was the first time putting it into action.

City officials said they needed an immediate result for the shooting and this new alert came just in time to notify and keep everybody calm.

“Hopefully this kept some people at-bay and at-rest. If anything it should’ve assured them that things are being taken care of, you’re safe, we’re on it,” said Adams County Emergency Manager Ron Pughes.

Before officers would have to knock on doors or use a P.A. system to tell everyone to stay inside but with this alert system it can reach thousands through just a simple text.

“I can literally send right now within my area any message to every single cell phone, T.V. crawls, the NOAA weather radio with just a simple push of a button, so you gotta go through all this credentialing stuff, you gotta go through testing, took us two years to get it,” Pughes said.

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