(AP) -- The next time a hurricane or wildfire threatens the Grand Strand, Horry County will be able to inform residents via their home phones about what they should do. The county held its first large-scale test Monday of the Geo Call system.

Emergency management officials are pretty pleased with it so far, though they say there are issues to address, including misconceptions about what this phone alert system is all about.

Monday afternoon, Sue Smith got a call at home, "In the event of an emergency, pay attention to local media," said an automated test message from Horry County government.

Smith isn't convinced Geo Call would do much good in an actual emergency. "To me it wouldn't be the way to go." She thinks getting an alert from TV or even a neighborhood watch program would be better. "You can always tell your neighbor and tell them it's time to get out."

Emergency Management Director Randy Webster says Geo Call is not a reverse 9-1-1 system and it's not intended to be. He says the county will still rely on the news media to get the word out about a sudden evacuation, like the one during the wildfire that ripped through Barefoot Resort in April.

Webster says it just takes too long - up to 45 minutes - to set up Geo Call to alert thousands of people in one area. "If you're doing it on the fly, you've got to figure out where you're gonna be, how much geographical area, what your message needs to be that's related to that."

Webster says the system is more of a follow-up for residents whose first source of information is TV or radio. He says it'll work best at informing residents what to do when a hurricane threatens. "Where we can pre-establish the hurricane evacuation zones, have more time and we get people that information that, hey, a hurricane evacuation is taking place at whatever time it will be."

Webster says there are other bugs to be worked out, like language barriers and the fact that the system cannot call cell phones.

But he says finding ways to work those things out is part of why they're testing it.

The county's test included thousands of homes in the Forestbrook area and along Highway 544 south of Conway.

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