The only difference between adventure and disaster is preparedness.

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

This is only a test....

Yesterday, the Department of Emergency Management conducted a routine test of our Emergency Community Notification System. This year's test was conducted in Ryderwood at 2:00 p.m. A test call to 252 residents was made with the following message:
This is the Cowlitz County Sheriff’s Office. Please do not hang up. We are conducting a test of the Emergency Community Notification System for residents of the Ryderwood area. In the event of an emergency, this system of reverse calling could be used to alert you to take action or evacuate. Thank you for your cooperation. If you have questions or comments about this test please call Emergency Management at (360) 577-3130.
Seventy-five percent of the calls were successful (meaning someone answered or it went to an answering machine), the 25% of unsuccessful calls were either unanswered, received busy signals, were fax lines or were no longer in service. So, in theory, if there had been an actual emergency, 75% of Ryderwood residents would have been informed. We count that as a big success! If you have questions about our Emergency Community Notification System (ECNS) please give us a call at 577-3130.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I lived in Cowlitz County for 45 years and don't think I've ever received a call like this.
I've lived in Rainier for almost 5 years and haven't had a call like this here, either...and we live right by the dike!!
How does one get on "the list"?

Cowlitz County DEM said...

If you have a land-line phone, you are automatically "on the list." We have had this system in place for a few years now, however you would only receive a call if there was a dire emergency. We have used the system 4 times during flooding to evacuate neighborhoods. I do not believe that Rainier has an ECNS system at this time. If you have any other questions, please do not hesitate to contact our office at 577-3130.