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Council supports warning system

Emergency managers across the foothills are asking municipalities to hop on board with a warning system that taps into today’s technology.
The Foothills Regional Emergency Service Commission and emergency managers across the foothills are approaching communities about establishing a regional warning system to
The Foothills Regional Emergency Service Commission and emergency managers across the foothills are approaching communities about establishing a regional warning system to alert the public in the event of emergencies via land lines phones, cell phones and email.

Emergency managers across the foothills are asking municipalities to hop on board with a warning system that taps into today’s technology.

The Foothills Regional Emergency Service Commission (FRESC) is working with emergency managers in foothills municipalities to determine interest in establishing a regional warning system that will alert people of emergencies in their area with calls to land lines phones, cell phones and email.

“These are current technologies,” said Gerry Rooke, director of emergency management for Turner Valley. “People can add whatever technologies they want in the order that they want. You can tell it to call my cell phone first, then my home land line and then send me an email.”

The system, provided by emergency notification company Commalert and created by U.S. company Everbridge, would be administered and governed by FRESC.

The proposal received support from Turner Valley town council following Rooke’s presentation at its March 2 council meeting.

Whether or not the program will go ahead would depend on support from other communities, he told council. If it does, it will cost the Town $211.50 for the initial setup and $1,136.26 annually.

“It’s very much at the beginning process,” said Rooke. “We need to find which communities are going to say yes.”

The MD of Foothills and Town of High River signed up for a local version of the system last year, but Rooke said both can be integrated into the regional system if its established.

To receive emergency alerts, individuals will sign up for the service online and include their home address and specify how they want to receive the message – be it phone, text message or email.

Rooke said alerts will be issued by emergency managers in affected municipalities and go to people in the affected area.

“We can issue specific alerts to specific populations,” Rooke said. “During the flood I could have told people in Royalite, ‘watch out, your homes are going to go under water’ and the people of Calkins Place, ‘watch out there is a gas leak.’ During an incident we can use it to keep the public updated as to what’s going on.”

With the system in its infancy stages, Rooke said the guidelines and procedures around the emergency warning system have yet to be determined.

Rooke said it would add to the current Alberta emergency alert system that interrupts radio and television broadcasts.

“When something happens suddenly like a flood in the middle of the night how many people are listening to the radio or watching TV?,” he said “It’s a good system but it has some limitations.”

Dona Fluter, Turner Valley councillor, said the emergency warning system would be a more efficient way to get alerts to the public.

During the 2013 flood, several residents in the area lost access to the Internet and land lines, making communication difficult for days, and in some cases weeks.

“When a lot of communities and emergency management teams did their post review of the flood communication in this area communications was almost at a standstill for a number of reasons,” she said. “It became very evident we needed to come up with a better way of managing communications.”

Fluter said she is excited about the potential to have the new emergency warning service in the region.

“Anything that improves and allows for better communication when adversity is on its way is a great thing,” she said.

“The cost to the community is minimal for the service that we’re going to get.”

Coun. Barry Crane agreed that it’s a service he would like to see in Turner Valley.

“I would love to see something like this, especially the fact that it’s regionalized,” he said.

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