Ontario needs to do a better job on emergency alert system
There’s nothing quite like being awakened on a sleepy Sunday morning by a jarring emergency alert on your phone announcing an unspecified incident at a nuclear plant.
Thankfully the alert, which was also broadcast across Ontario on radio and television stations, was a mistake, a test sent in error. But the error highlighted some glaring communications holes in the province’s detailed plans for the highly unlikely event of a real emergency at one of its nuclear power plants.
Imagine the sudden panic in some homes near the Pickering station, where people have lived comfortably for decades, confident in the safety record of Ontario’s nuclear fleet. How many packed the kids and pets in the car and hit the road at 7:30 Sunday morning, without waiting for more word on what actually had happened? How long should they have waited, with no more official information coming, before evacuating?
It took nearly two hours for the Provincial Emergency Operations Centre to issue a second alert admitting the first had been sent in error. Why so long? They must have realized immediately the test went provincewide, even to their own personal phones.
That’s a ridiculously long period of official silence, given the shockingly alarming nature of the nuclear alert, which also stated there had been no abnormal radioactivity. Why bring radioactivity into it at all, even in a test, if it states levels are normal?
During that time, security at Ontario Power Generation, which operates the Pickering station, told reporters there were no staff available to provide more information. Forty minutes after the alert, OPG posted a Tweet saying it had been a mistake. A Tweet.
While some people get their news from social media, in times of emergencies, disasters or severe weather many still tune to local radio and TV for the latest updates.
The wording of the alert, “which applies to people within ten kilometres of the Pickering Nuclear Generating Station,” directed them to “tune to local media for further information and instructions.” It didn’t say follow us on Twitter to see what to do next. OPG and the PEOC should have had communications staff ready to go onair almost immediately after the first alert. That’s what’s needed in a real emergency. OPG security should have known where to direct the flood of media calls.
It needs to be made very clear exactly where the media can turn to get critical information in such potentially lifethreatening emergencies.
Pickering Mayor Dave Ryan said local emergency protocols immediately kicked into gear and they were soon notified it had been a false alarm, a message he delivered through live radio and TV interviews, while provincial officials Tweeted.
Why isn’t the template for the alert — which is tested twice a day — clearly labelled with a bold, all-caps THIS IS A TEST, REPEAT THIS IS A TEST across the top and bottom?
Part of the problem is emergency notifications on phones, which until now were almost always Amber Alerts about missing children, are often blasted out to people hundreds of kilometres from the search area. To some they’ve become annoying — even generating a few complaints to police — and that can diminish the effectiveness of, and confidence in, the emergency alert system. That can’t be allowed to happen.
Emergency officials need to do a better job of using the technology to target alerts to impacted areas, so people actually pay attention and don’t just tune them out.