This morning, many Saanich Peninsula residents received a text or phone call to test the area’s emergency alert system. Though the system has been tested before, this was the first time the newly combined system was tested.
Sidney Fire Chief Brett Mikkelsen said overall, the test went well, though there were some minor glitches. He said a few subscribers received multiple calls after pressing 1 to acknowledge receipt of the message. He estimated that less than one per cent of residents had this issue.
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“We’ve created an issue or trouble log, just to provide feedback to our provider,” said Mikkelsen.
Mikkelsen noted the test was an important reminder for Saanich Peninsula residents. He was one of many area firefighters deployed to the B.C. wildfires this summer and said residents here are not used to that sort of large-scale emergency. The closest comparison, he said, was the blizzard of 1996, but “that was a high-intensity, short-duration event that wasn’t that severe in terms of long-term consequences as compared to fires or earthquakes.”
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Central Saanich Mayor Ryan Windsor said the test was a success, though did acknowledge that some residents encountered problems. He saw on Facebook that some residents thought the call was a scam because the automated call asked residents to press 1 for receipt. Other residents reported multiple phone calls “from” the Dominican Republic with the same emergency test message.
“Better too many phone calls than none at all,” said Windsor, who encouraged residents who experienced problems to provide feedback to the District.
Saanich Peninsula residents without a cell phone can still receive alerts through their landline phone or email, said Mikkelsen, who said the system is designed to target the broadest swath of the population.
“We recognize, especially in the Town of Sidney, that not everyone carries a cell phone, not everyone relies on texting and the like.”
When signing up online, residents can choose to receive alerts on multiple devices, not just one, and alerts are sent to those devices in order of preference. To sign up, residents are asked to visit their municipality’s website.
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