Chamber of Commerce After-Hours
.JPG)
Democratic National Convention
2008 Browns preseason
Home > Blogs > Hamilton News and Issues > Archives > 2008 > April > 03 > Entry
Reverse 911
Several Hamilton residents have commented to me since the city’s water boil advisory began that the city needs an automated call system to reach people who don’t routinely watch/read the news media.
Not surprisingly, Hamilton City Manager Mark Brandenburger said that the city does have an automated reverse 911 call system, but opted not to use it for the precautionary advisory.
Why didn’t the city alert residents to the boil advisory with this system? Well, Brandenburger estimates that to reach more than 25,000 water customers through 20 phone lines with a minute-long recorded message it would take upward of 33 hours.
Yes, 33 hours.
“That system would not be very time effective and you’d be waking people up all over town,” Brandenburger said.
He said the city is looking at other options such as allowing utility customers to sign up for volunteer text or email alerts. Though, the efficiency of those methods is questionable as well. Claire Wagner, spokeswoman for Miami University, said only 5,800 of the potential 26,000 students, staff and faculty have signed up for its text alert system since it debuted over the summer.
So, there is no great method, but the city will investigate upgrades, Brandenburger said. For now, he said the city’s alert methods of going through the media were within the boundaries of the law and the same as those utilized by Duke Energy.
“We are not going to send sound trucks up and down the neighborhoods,” Brandenburger said. “That’s just totally inefficient.”
Permalink | Comments (3) | Post your comment |
Comments
By Jim
April 4, 2008 12:28 PM | Link to this
I would like to know what media outlets carried the story right away. I couldn’t find one.By Rich
April 4, 2008 2:57 PM | Link to this
Answering Jim’s question, my wife and I were watching Channel 9’s local news between 6:30 and 7 AM that morning while getting ready for work, and they reported this water main break. A boil advisory was mentioned, but it didn’t clearly indicate the entire city of Hamilton was included.By SAM
April 4, 2008 3:33 PM | Link to this
We heard about it on Fox19 Morning News, but not before our entire family had consumed tap water… I have to think that if there should ever be a serious water contamination problem, that this way of handling notification could result in a pretty bad situation.