Times Colonist

Alert Ready system expands to floods and fires, not heat domes

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An automated alert system will be ready to warn British Columbians of spring flooding and summer wildfires but not yet for extreme heat, Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth said Tuesday.

Farnworth told a news conference the Alert Ready system is all set for the spring thaw and will be in place by early June for wildfires. The system is an extra tool to help communitie­s respond to the increasing threats posed by climate change, he said.

However, officials are still deciding when it should be used in the case of hot weather, similar to the so-called heat dome B.C. experience­d last summer.

“Right now there’s work that’s underway with the Ministry of Health in terms of what the parameters should be in terms of a heat warning. That’s something that is coming,” he said.

Alert Ready is a system available across Canada that allows government officials to issue public safety alerts through television and radio broadcaste­rs, as well as compatible wireless devices.

While the system is coordinate­d provincial­ly, it is up to local government officials to use it. In extreme cases, the province can intervene and put out an alert directly, Farnworth said.

The system is only one of the ways that officials warn the public of imminent danger and won’t replace door-knocking or police telling residents they need to evacuate, he added.

“It is a tool, not a silver bullet,” Farnworth said.

The B.C. government came under fire for not using the system to warn residents about scorching temperatur­es, which the BC Coroners Service later said caused nearly 600 heatrelate­d deaths.

At the time, the province said it was only prepared to use Alert Ready for tsunamis and Amber Alerts for abducted children.

Almost two weeks after heavy rains in November began causing fatal mudslides and surging rivers that displaced thousands of people, the government said it was prepared to use Alert Ready to issue flood warnings.

Farnworth said Tuesday that while officials were prepared to use it in some areas if necessary last fall, it is now in place for use provincewi­de.

A test of the system is planned for today at 1:55 p.m.

Farnworth announced the expansion as forecaster­s said the spring flood risk has increased in some areas. At the same time, they warned that both climate change and last year’s disasters are making prediction­s more difficult.

Spring flooding usually peaks in May and June and is caused by a combinatio­n of rainfall, temperatur­es and snowpack levels.

The snowpack is now 114 per cent above normal levels on average, up from near-normal conditions April 1, with higher amounts in the Interior and northern mountain ranges, said Dave Campbell of the River Forecast Centre.

April was cool, which could increase the risk of flooding if temperatur­es swing up in the next few weeks, causing rapid run-off, he said.

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