A voluntary system of severe weather warnings via phone calls and text messages could expand countywide, as Warren County supervisors on Thursday discussed how to spend disaster grant money on the table since last year and how to inform residents rebuilding in Eagle Lake following the April 24 tornado of looming construction and septic system regulations.

After more than a year of debate, supervisors appear ready to help expand the CodeRED telephone notification system beyond city limits. About 900 households inside Vicksburg subscribe to the service, currently set up to inform people about severe thunderstorm, tornado and flash flood warnings issued for the area by the National Weather Service.

Supervisors cast aside earlier concerns they had about the system’s kinks that included calls for non-weather emergencies far from Vicksburg and Warren County or no call at all because city officials said they have been worked out since its December 2008 startup, county officials said having residents opt in by submitting emergency notification information would be cheaper than replacing four of 15 warning sirens deemed as most needing attention.

“We’ve proven they don’t work — we might as well try this,” Board President Richard George said, adding he had received a call from the system’s Florida-based service vendor at his nonmunicipal, Fisher Ferry Road residence during the early stages of implementation locally.

Eleven homes were destroyed by the EF-4 tornado when it crossed Sea Island Drive in Eagle Lake. Modifications to the state’s Flood Damage Prevention Ordinance dictate new construction in the most flood-prone zones be raised 18 inches above base flood elevation — a standard in itself that may change a few times as federal and state agencies work to redo current county flood maps by 2012. The raised elevation also applies to mobile homes and RVs.

Such mobile dwellings, which could replace a few of the properties reduced to slabs, must be tested and have a letter of intent in hand from the state Department of Health to clear the structures of any improper discharge from septic systems and receive a building permit, according to an agency directive getting perhaps its first test in Warren County.

Letters explaining what steps are needed to comply with the rule will be delivered by Permit Office staff to each Sea Island Drive property owner in the coming days, officials said. Though the entire Eagle Lake community was designated a Special Flood Hazard Area on maps approved in 2008, the board indicated it would limit the letters concerning construction and sewerage rules only to Sea Island Drive residents and rely on word of mouth to inform the rest of the resort area.

If the county participates, CodeRED would be paid $18,750 annually and, if supervisors decide to apply for $100,000 in disaster mitigation grant funds, the county would receive a one-time reimbursement of subscription costs totaling 75 percent. An actual mechanism for residents in the county to sign up is undetermined. People essentially enroll themselves when a phone number submitted via link on the city’s website is accepted by Strategic Planning Department personnel and no extra staff is needed, Vicksburg Emergency Management Director Anna Booth said when reached Thursday.

Emergency Management Director Gwen Coleman said her office hasn’t received word on an expiration date for the grant, first announced from the Department of Homeland Security in January 2009 for Warren, Jefferson, Washington and Coahoma counties. A formal vote on the grant is expected Monday.

A switch to CodeRED is sure to signal the functional end to the sirens’ use as storm warning indicators, most of which are concentrated in the southern half of the county. First erected in Warren and other Mississippi counties immediately after Grand Gulf Nuclear Station opened in 1985 as a way to alert residents of incidents at the plant that may warrant an evacuation, the sirens have become more expensive to restore because of outdated technology. Recent repair forecasts pegged replacing the worst-performing sirens at $83,272, including activation costs. Weather radios emerged as a possible use for the grant money but were panned by supervisors for reasons varying to their need for batteries to their widespread availability.