Thursday, May 2, 2019

Sign up for the Cariboo Chilcotin Emergency Notification System

Courtesy of the Cariboo Regional District; Cities of Quesnel/Williams Lake and the Districts of Wells/100 Mile House:

With only 25 percent of the region’s population registered for emergency notifications, the local governments within the Cariboo have announced May 13-17, 2019, as a sign-up week for the Cariboo Chilcotin Emergency Notification System. Through a partnership with the Cariboo Regional District, 100 Mile House, Quesnel, Wells and Williams Lake, the system is available to all residents free of charge and provides mass emergency notifications.

Residents who register for the program will receive notifications about emergency and time-sensitive events happening near their home, work, school, or other locations that they have pre-selected during registration. Residents can register to receive these updates through different contact methods including:
  • Home phone
  • Business phone
  • Cell phone
  • Text message
  • Email
Note, you will only receive notifications if an emergency or time-sensitive situation impacts the address(es) you have registered.

Visit your local government’s website to sign up and click on the “Register for Emergency Notifications” icon (Wells residents should currently visit cariboord.ca). If you’ve already registered, don’t sign up again; rather, log into your profile to make sure your contact information and addresses are up-to-date.

If you need help registering or updating your profile, contact your local government:
  • Cariboo Regional District – cariboord.ca or call 250-392-3351 or 1-800-665-1636
  • District of 100 Mile House – 100milehouse.com or call 250-395-2434
  • City of Quesnel – quesnel.ca or call 250-992-2111
  • District of Wells – wells.ca or call 250-994-3330
  • City of Williams Lake – williamslake.ca or call 250-392-2311
RESOURCES
NOTIFICATION SYSTEM TIPS
  • Use your email address as your username to help you remember in the future. Write down your username and password in a safe location so that you can login and update your account on a yearly basis.
  • When registering an address to receive notifications about, make sure the pin on the map is accurate for your location. This is a common error when individuals are not receiving accurate notifications.
  • It is recommended you sign up for the alerts as an individual, rather than by family unit. This ensures the notification system reaches all parties through their own personal contact devices.
  • When you receive a notification, you will need to confirm that the notification was received in order to stop receiving messages. Reply YES to a text, click the link in an email, or press 1 at the end of the phone message.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Why register?
The Cariboo Chilcotin Emergency Notification System is a powerful tool for keeping people informed during emergencies or other important events. In addition to evacuation orders and alerts, local governments in the Cariboo also use it for Boil Water Notices, utility emergencies and other public works notifications.

The system is only as good as the information in the system. Register today to make sure you are informed in case of an emergency.

Can the system access the white pages?
The Cariboo Chilcotin Emergency Notification System can access phone numbers from the white pages of the phone book in case of an emergency. This is why you may have received a notification to your landline in the past even though you did not register.

Residents are strongly encouraged to register for the system because landlines are not relevant when a community is evacuated and the white pages information can be out of date. Signing up means you can choose a variety of contact methods and identify which addresses are important to you.

How is this different from the federal/provincial Alert Ready system?
The national Alert Ready system is currently only used for tsunami warnings in B.C. and is used in addition to local alerting systems like the Cariboo Chilcotin Emergency Notification System. Make sure you are registered for the Cariboo Chilcotin Emergency Notification System to be notified for local alerts about other types of emergencies in the Cariboo, such as wildfires, floods or boil water notices.

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