EVERETT — If your home or business is threatened by floods or windstorms this winter, you might get a telephone call from the authorities.
Everett, Monroe and Snohomish County are about to go online with a reverse 911 system, capable of quickly sending emergency alert messages to tens of thousands of telephones.
During recent wildfires in Southern California, similar call systems are credited with delivering evacuation notices to thousands of people in some communities.
“There’s no one answer in public notification,” said Dave DeHaan, Everett’s emergency management chief. “What we want to have is enough tools to get the word out to a lot of people. This is another tool in the toolbox.”
The Web-based system also can send text messages to city and county emergency workers’ cell phones, pagers and e-mail, so they can respond to emergencies promptly.
Whether it’s a train derailment sending clouds of toxic chemicals into the air or a police standoff with a dangerous gunman, local officials will be able to send automated phone messages.
Users can record a voice message or write instructions that are converted into speech by a computer program.
They can then determine how many people picked up the phone and how long they listened to the message.
It doesn’t stop there.
It is nimble enough to send alerts to an entire city, or zero in areas as small as a few blocks.
The system, developed by Boise, Idaho-based Internet company MyStateUSA, uses mapping software to target where messages are sent.
John Pennington, director of Snohomish County’s Department of Emergency Management, said the system would have been handy during last winter’s floods, which forced many to evacuate their homes.
“If we had this last year, instead of asking the sheriff’s department to go knock on doors, we would do four clicks or a polygon on a map, highlight it, pre-script a message and hit send.”
The county is expected to buy the new program within a few weeks, Pennington said. Everett should have its reverse 911 system in place by January, city spokeswoman Kate Reardon said.
Once installed, the two systems should be able to work together, and stand in for each other should one go down.
Everett agreed to pay $5,000 a year for the system, plus 20 cents for every call, as well as additional fees if it is used. the county will pay MyStateUSA $15,000 for installation and an additional $4,000 per year, plus extra usage fees.
Reverse 911 systems aren’t perfect.
Those with telephones that require electricity won’t get calls when the power is out.
People who have ditched their land lines in favor of cell phones also won’t get a call.
During the Southern California wildfires, some who should have received evacuation orders did not.
Even so, the program can be a powerful tool for keeping people up to speed during disasters.
Like the Emergency Alert System, the federal network that allows governments to take over the airwaves to broadcast emergency messages on TV and radio, telephone messaging technology aims to work like a bullhorn to warn the masses of impending emergencies.
“After Katrina hit, it became a major priority for government entities to really get involved with things like this,” said Brenn Bitner, business manager with MyStateUSA, a division of Internet Associates, Inc.
The company does most of its work in hurricane-vulnerable Gulf states, said Bitner.
When Louisiana activated its emergency response center in August as Hurricane Dean headed toward the Gulf of Mexico, it also sent out phone messages to people along the coast, said Bitner.
His company recently began working in Arizona, where it is sending out phone calls with details on child abductions when authorities trigger Amber Alerts. And it is working in Wisconsin, where a cellular provider gave permission to send out emergency text messages to anyone within range of its towers.
The company also contracts with Washington State Emergency Management Division to alert emergency managers around the state to breaking news.
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