Alert FM gets funding in Butte County

OROVILLE >> Identifying a clear need to enhance the county’s emergency alert and warning systems, Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea approached the Butte County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday requesting the board approve $500,000 from the PG&E Settlement Fund be used for installing Alert FM, a radio-based emergency alert system.

During both the 2018 Camp Fire and 2020 North Complex fires, multiple cell towers failed in the areas under evacuation and alerts from the CodeRED and IPAWS systems were not delivered, and notices from the Sheriff’s Office social media pages didn’t reach everyone.

“What we’ve learned is you have to have redundancy within the system because no one single platform will be 100 percent successful,” Honea said. “No one single platform can be counted upon in every situation or disaster. And the Camp Fire certainly showed us that.”

Global Security Systems, which manufactures and incorporates Alert FM, contacted Honea after the fires about the system. Emergency operators can send out alerts through Alert FM, which uses an inhome receiver to continuously monitor FM frequencies. When an alert is sent out, the receiver will display an emergency message and flash, and an audio alarm will also go off.

Following a presentation from Honea and comments from Matthew Straeb of Global Security Systems and PG&E’s Dan Blair, the board voted unanimously to commit $ 500,000 in funds for the system and approve a capital asset purchase. The $500,000 is estimated to cover the installation in local FM radio stations and licensing the system for five years. The home receivers cost $60 each and larger ones for commercial use, such as schools, hospitals and county buildings, are $340 each. Honea said they’re

looking at ways to offset or subsidize costs of the receivers for residents.

In addition to immediate emergencies such as wildfires, public safety power shut- offs initiated by PG&E hinder residents, particularly in remote foothill communities to receive alerts. Cell phone service is spotty in many areas, and those who rely on Wi-Fi to use their phones lose that ability when the power is shut off, Honea noted. Alert FM can run on household power, but also can run on a battery.

Honea said the gap in services again became apparent during the most recent wildfire season, including the North Complex fires.

Straeb reached out to Honea and offered to come to Butte County to demonstrate a potential solution through Alert FM. Straeb began working with local radio stations and ultimately, five frequencies were identified that cover a vast majority of the county.

Along with Butte County Sheriff’s Office staff, they traveled around foothill communities, such as Forbestown, Berry Creek and

Concow to test the system and found that coverage was good overall, Honea said.

“There is no 100 percent foolproof system. There is no way to guarantee 100 percent coverage in any system. That’s why we have redundancy in the systems,” Honea said. “And there are certainly places within our county deep in some of the hollows, if you will, of the foothills where you’re not going to get cell phone service, where you’re not going to get radio service. That is true.

“But the fact of the matter is, by bringing this system in we will be able to reach more people who currently cannot be reached. But we also provide a level of redundancy across the entire county.”

Alert FM will be integrated into the county’s existing emergency system, allowing a Sheriff’s Office employee to create a message, which is then sent through a satellite-based system to those FM radio stations in various locations to Alert FM receivers.

Straeb took questions from the board on potential areas where the system may

not be covered. Straeb said Global Security Systems has been working with the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services for four years to further build out the system to radio stations across the state, and said they’re “guaranteeing coverage for the whole county” with the Alert FM system.

“Ultimately, there will be 300-plus radio stations that will be connected across the state,” he said. “Every station we add benefits all the citizens of California, so it’s in our interest to build out the network.”

As for the cost to residents, Blair said PG& E is “exploring what options we might have” to support the deployment of the receivers for future shut- off events, though he didn’t yet have specifics on what that might look like. Blair said PG&E will have an update in the coming weeks.

The Sheriff’s Office indicated the ultimate goal is for each household within the county’s foothill communities have an Alert FM receiver.