The City of Nanaimo will test its emergency alert system on Oct. 27 at 10:15 a.m. The Voyent Alert! notification will be sent through SMS text, phone call, email and its app to the over 10,000 people registered so far, according to the city.
“If there’s an emergency in any part of our city, wouldn’t you want to know about it? I sure would and that’s what this system is designed to do; to communicate with the public when we need it the most,” said Mayor Leonard Krog.
The app is used for alerting the public of an emergency, such as an earthquake, providing details including evacuation or lockdown instructions and notifications to leave a certain area. The alerts can be localized to an area as specific as one city block, but the app does not keep records of a user’s GPS location. Users can subscribe to receive notifications about as many locations in Nanaimo as they want to.
“I encourage all residents to sign up for this system as part of your emergency preparation and be ready to receive our first test alert from the system [tomorrow],” said Karen Lindsay, emergency program manager for the city.
The city said it may occasionally put out non-emergency notifications, such as weather advisories and street cleaning notices through the app! Signing up is free and anonymous. Visit www.nanaimo.ca/goto/alerts for more details.
Residents of Parksville can sign up for area-specific alerts by registering with the postal code V9P 2H3, according to the City of Parksville’s website. Qualicum Beach residents can register the postal code V9K 1S7 to receive alerts specific to that community, according to the town’s website. No test is scheduled for Parksville or Qualicum Beach.
