Thrusday, January 07, 1999
Boone emergency-phone system can warn 12,000 people per hour
BY EARNEST WINSTON
The Cincinnati Enquirer
BURLINGTON — When Boone County's new telephone emergency warning system is operational by March, up to 12,000 residents per hour can be notified of situations from hazardous materials spills to floods.
Boone County will become the first county statewide to use a telephone warning system. Boone, Campbell and Kenton counties, and Hamilton County in Ohio, use outdoor sirens to warn residents of emergencies. Hamilton County officials are considering contracting for the telephone emergency warning system.
“The Community Alert Network Inc. is basically a telephone-based emergency notification system where we can use the phone lines to notify a portion of the residents of an impending emergency or disaster, or just to give basic information,” said William Appleby, director of Boone County Emergency Management.
“It gives us a way to con tact them that we currently don't have right now. The best we could do (now) is activate our outdoor warning sirens or send a police officer or fire officer to physically knock on doors and notify people.”
Mr. Appleby said the telephone network could be used for severe weather warnings, but may not be as effective in such situations because it wouldn't warn Boone County's nearly 80,000 residents in a timely manner.
However, the addition of the telephone network, which could be ready as early as Feb. 15, will give Boone Countians a more comprehensive warning system.
“We're trying to build a complete system. We're not going to take any of our sirens off line. We're not going to do away with any other notification system that we have, we're just adding to it. This will just enhance what we already have.”
It costs $11,700 annually to operate the telephone network, which can notify residents in a specific subdivision or specific areas of the coun ty.
Community Alert Network (CAN) was started in 1984 in upstate New York as the “Missing Child Network,” and later expanded to other emergency services. CAN, which now contracts with 37 states and Canada, responds to about 600 requests annually. The system can also be used for jail escapes, fires, water, gas or pipeline breaks and train derailments.
“It's proven effective. It's cost-effective and it provides another tool in the tool box of emergency management to warn the public,” said CAN's president Ken Baechel. “I would recommend that it would be part of the (existing) warning system.”
In 1992, CAN was used to notify residents of a Louisiana community to evacuate when a refrigeration unit at a B.F. Goodrich plant failed and 3,000 pounds of organic peroxide diluted with mineral spirits escaped as vapor into the atmosphere. CAN was also used during Hurricanes Opal and Andrew.
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