Notify Me Now test May 11; officials want more Hatters to register
All Hatters with a landline telephone will be part of a test — and only a test — of the city’s new emergency notification system on May 11.
The event however, is meant to check out how the Notify Me Now system is operating, but also encourage residents to register cellphones, email addresses and social media addresses where they might prefer to get notices.
Almost 90 per cent of the 30,000 contacts in the system are from white and yellow pages, a city committee heard Tuesday.
About 2,000 individual Hatters have entered their preferred contact information, as well as secondary locations, such as a workplace, a child’s school or elderly relative’s address.
Administrators told the corporate services committee they want “residents to experience how it actually works.”
“We have pretty complete initial coverage,” said Merrick Brown, the city’s emergency management director. “It’s now up to people to tell us if they prefer (to be contacted) by cellphone or email as well.”
On May 11, emergency planners will send out test messages on a community by community basis — the system allows planners to mark off areas and send specific information to different sites.
They will trouble shoot the system at that time, and hopefully get more registration for the voluntary service.
Committee members questioned the level of uptake.
“When we first talked about this there was a question of people buying in, and from what I’m seeing, they haven’t,” said Coun. Brian Varga. “It’s a great service to people if we can make it work.”
“It seems to me like people would be eager to sign up,” said committee chair Coun. Robert Dumanowski. “I’m a bit puzzled; there is a lot of value in it.”
City CAO Merete Heggelund said the figures are likely to grow as a result of the testing.
“(Individual registration) is not phenomenal but it’s not really that bad considering how new it is,” she said, adding a related media campaign should increase interest.
The system was put in place last October and at that time residents were encouraged to self-register, add cellphone numbers and email addresses, and denote how they would prefer to be contacted.
They can add other locations that might be important, such as an elderly relative’s house or a child’s day care.
In case of emergency, such as flood, major fire or industrial accident, Hatters would receive key information based on their geographic location.
For example, a train derailment or chemical spill might lead emergency officials to within minutes instructing nearby residents to remain indoors.
A flood evacuation order would allow the city to contact affected addresses.
Heggelund said employing traditional media, the city website and social media channels and even going door to door in some cases, are still part of the communication plan.
“Notify Me Now is another tool and it could be an important tool,” she said.
There are 30,421 individual contacts in the system but only 2,000 of those represent people who have signed up.
About 90 per cent are from listings, and the remainder are city staff members and other emergency officials who would respond to emergencies. (It also serves as a backup communication channel for first responders).