COUNCILLOR UPDATE – Suzanne Oel – Foothills County – Jul 2022

Hope you are able to take part in our local events this summer! Check out the Priddis Stampede Breakfast on Sunday, July 17.

Discontinuation of S.C.A.N. (Safe Communities Alert Network): Post-2013, Foothills County started work with Everbridge to roll out a custom form of emergency notification. Later this was adopted as a regional effort and other municipalities signed on. However, the difficulty of keeping contact information up-to-date and the dwindling uptake has led to this service being discontinued.

S.C.A.N. has now been replaced by the evolving technology of the Alberta Emergency Alert System that goes directly to cell phones. Citizens can further customize an Alberta Emergency Alert App on their cell phone to access the information they choose. A number of Foothills County staff members are trained on posting emergency messaging with this system. As well, there is additional process which allows the County to access the Provincial Operations if they are in an emergency situation that requires assistance to send messages to the public.

Visit: emergencyalert.alberta.ca/content/about/mobileapp.html You can also check out other Apps which are now available for fire bans, wildfire, river watch – flood and drought , air quality, smoke and more. Foothills County also has a banner on the website homepage which will note current emergency messaging.

Neighbourhood Strategies on Emergency Notification: As mentioned, the new go-to is the Province’s Emergency Alert App, which uses citizens’ cell phones as receivers and can be custom deployed with municipal-specific alert messages. However, a number of situations may occur which could prevent you from being notified via this or other newer technologies.

Whether you have issues with cell coverage, phone service, no internet coverage, power outage, adverse weather conditions or your email gets missed during an emergency message fan-out, you may want to consider some other strategies to be sure you are aware of important news, asap.

In case of emergency, please consider these additional suggestions on how you could stay informed:

• Sign up for our local High Country Rural Crime Watch (HCRCWA) information fan-out. Membership is free of charge. Visit: http://hcrcwa.ca HCRCWA will still send out emergency fan-outs via landline phone, cell phone and email (your preference). Volunteers will do their best to communicate in a timely manner; however, they may be more delayed than the App in getting out the information.
• Make sure you have a voicemail or answering machine on your main home phone, landline (if you have one), so messages can be left for you. It is a good idea to keep the landline, as long as we are able to. These lines work when the power is out. You can still obtain phones that do not require power to operate.
• Set up a phone fan-out closer to home, amongst closest neighbours (or via email, What’s App or other preference). Have a conversation with direct neighbours and renew it every so often to remind each other to call one another if something is going on, to check in on each other. Some neighbour groups have a yearly BBQ to renew contact. Others set up a phone fan-out, splitting up a list between them. Must consider some being away on holidays, at work, asleep, outside, injured, or just away from the phone. Have to discuss being OK with anytime 24/7 calls if an emergency occurs. Again, make sure there is a voicemail option. Many neighbours check in on their elderly neighbours to make sure they are informed, and some offer help.
• Set up a “phone-me” agreement between even just two neighbours or two family members – between the one who has the cell phone and gets the Provincial/Municipal Alerts, and the one that does not.
• Keep up your personal initiative. Please be observant of your surroundings and check in on the news or with other people once-in-awhile and be aware of goings-on.