One of Boulder’s new emergency notification systems reached into several Longmont neighborhoods during the NCAR fire on Saturday, a flaw that officials acknowledged over the weekend.
That same system - Wireless Emergency Alerts or WEA - will soon be introduced in Longmont and there is hope that the spillover effect that sends evacuation notices to other jurisdictions will be fixed by then, Mike Chard, director of the Boulder Office of Emergency Management, said Monday.
"We knew there would be a 'bleed' to the WEA system," Chard said. "We just didn't know how much of a bleed we would have."
"We are looking at this now to get this fixed." Chard added.
WEA was used for the first time during the NCAR fire that started Saturday afternoon. WEA uses cell phone technology, including cellular towers, to push notifications out, similar to Amber Alerts and National Weather Service notices, to all cell phones that are configured to accept them, Chard said.
WEA can reach residents who have not opted to use the Everbridge system, which sends alerts to all landlines in an impacted area and allows individuals to register their cell phone numbers to receive alerts about a particular address or addresses, a OEM news release states.
WEA’s downside is that its messaging is much less precise. Anyone who pings the relevant tower will get the alert, the news release states.
“We have received numerous complaints that individuals well outside of the evacuation zone, including nearby communities, received these (alerts),” a OEM news release states. “This spillover is a well-known issue and currently is hard to avoid.”
If people receive a WEA notice but do not believe they are at risk, they should go to the Boulder OEM Emergency Status page at https://www.boulderoem.com/emergency-status/ for more information.
