Steinbach’s emergency coordinator says though the Alert Ready system can now send provincial emergency notifications directly to mobile devices, it is still important to then turn to local radio and media outlets for in-depth emergency information.
As of Friday, public emergency notifications from Alert Ready can be sent to compatible wireless devices on LTE networks in Manitoba.
"We don’t have access to put anything out through the Alert Ready system. Manitoba EMO is the only entity that has the access to put something out. We would have to send them information and they would have to upload it through the system to be able to put it out."
Vassart says in the case of an emergency, no matter how you are notified, you should listen or read carefully, make sure you are in a safe location, and look to local radio and media outlets for further information.
Ron Schuler is the Manitoba Minister of Infrastructure and is responsible for emergency measures. He notes the notifications that will be sent to mobile phones will be the same as those that have always run on television and radio stations but this new advancement allows them to be more location specific.
"What is nice about this is it will be far more localized. They can do it by cell tower, they can do it a lot more by region. We want to have a larger area than just the localized area so that people don’t drive into the affected area. You might be travelling to Steinbach but Steinbach is having a weather event so it will be a fairly broad area but we can localize it."
Schuler says there are many checks in place to ensure accidental notifications like the Hawaii ballistic missile scare are not sent out. He adds weather emergencies such as tornados can be sent via the Alert Ready system as well as emergency alerts for missing people under the age of 18.
Fri, Apr 26, 5:00 PM
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