Emergency Alert System Under Construction

By 250 News

There may be some relief on the way for rural communities who no longer have radio service.

The recent switch by many radio stations to the FM frequency has left some rural communities without a signal, meaning in the event of an emergency they  are in the dark, and some other means of notification would have to be used. 

The potential flood in Hixon was a prime example.  During the Naver Creek ice jams in Hixon a little over a year ago, emergency personell had to go door to door to advise residents they may be forced to evacuate the area.   

Since that time,  the Regional District of Fraser Fort George has been trying to come up with something that would provide an emergency alert  for those communities who fell through the radio coverage cracks when  stations switched to the cleaner sound, but reduced range of FM.

Director Art Kaehn says he has received a letter from the Federal Government, the CRTC,  regarding an  "all channel emergency alerting system".  "It sounds like we are inching along in that direction" Kaehn told the Regional District.

He says the CRTC may press for an all channel emergency alerting system for Bell ExpressVu satellite system and the CBC.  Kaehn says his committee, which has been working on this project is "Moving along, and we will be working with the folks in the Cariboo next week at the UBCM convention to see if we can work together on developing some sort of provincial system that would alert people when there are emergencies."

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