The Columbia Shuswap Regional District is rolling out a new emergency alert system, which they say will give residents access to trusted, timely and accurate information in times of crises.
The CSRD purchased Alertable, a mass notification system, with plans to roll out the system later this summer.
However, in the face of the current escalating wildfire situation across CSRD areas, the CSRD has chosen to accelerate launching the system. Alertable is now live as of the morning of July 23.
The system has started fresh, so any evacuations orders or other alerts would not retroactively be included the system.
The multi-purpose communication service will be used to send alerts to residents, businesses, and visitors during critical events like fires or floods, as well as for relevant day-to-day communications, such as water advisories.
Alertable will pass along critical information, such as the type and location of an emergency incident, evacuation alerts or orders, and instructions from emergency officials for the location specified.
Golden and Area A residents will be able to select the Golden and Area Emergency Program (GAEMP) for localized alerts.
Shuswap Emergency Program (SEP) will serve CSRD areas C, D, E and F, the City of Salmon Arm and the District of Sicamous.
Revelstoke and Area Emergency Program (RAEMP) is for residents of the City of Revelstoke and CSRD Area B.
Participants will be able to choose to receive notifications from multiple locations.
Notifications can be personalized by type and severity, as well as location. Alerts can be received through multiple mobile apps, text alerts, email or voice calling.
Registration with the program is anonymous, with no information being shared or used for marketing or data harvesting, according to the CSRD.
Both mobile applications and web-based accounts provide access to an unsubscribe feature. While subscribed, all critical-level alerts will be issued for the areas you have specified. You can customize advisory-level alerts to suit your needs.
The system is now live on the CSRD website at https://www.csrd.bc.ca/alertable
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