April M. Washington
The Rocky Mountain News
BOULDER, Colo. — Boulder County’s emergency notification system went into high gear last month when thousands of residents were alerted to the Olde Stage Fire through reverse 911 calls.
“You can see how well these systems work by what happened in Boulder County,” said Elizabeth Rehwalt, public safety systems administrator for Aurora. “They were able to alert 11,000 people to evacuate.’'
But Boulder also realized the limitations of its emergency notification system, said Jim Smith, division chief of support services for Boulder County Sheriff’s Office.
The communication center could only contact a few hundred homes by land line at any given time.
“It’s a wonderful tool. It beats having to knock on every door to tell people to evacuate,” he said. “But there are some downsides. The telephone infrastructure could only take so many calls per minute. The telephone circuits would jam up as people were calling out to friends and family.”
Boulder is exploring a system like ones implemented by Aurora and Douglas County that allow residents to register cell phones, e-mail addresses, business phones and the like to receive emergency notifications.
The county may install the software program in the next three to six months after reviewing the pros and cons, officials said.
The new technology won’t likely replace other methods to alert residents to dangers, including sending out deputies to knock on doors.
He notes that for the technology to be effective, subscribers must keep their cell-phone numbers, home addresses and e-mail information updated.
“If I don’t as a subscriber change my information when I move or change phone numbers or e-mail addresses, I’m not going to be notified or get the right information at the time it impacts me.”
Copyright 2009 Denver Publishing Company