City's test of emergency message system goes better this time
PORTLAND, Ore. - After a first try deemed a "failure" last month, City of Portland officials say they had better luck Thursday with a repeat test of an emergency notification system.
Randy Neves with the Portland Bureau of Emergency Management (PBEM) said "by and large, the test seems to be working well. So far."
KATU Reporter Anita Kissee received a text message on her phone at 11:06 a.m., just minutes after the test began. The KATU.com phone line in Northeast Portland received a call at 11:24 a.m. with a pre-recorded message.
Neves said a previous test on January 26 resulted in less than 1 percent of the 317,000 devices on the contact list receiving a notification from vendor FirstCall. At the time, he called that result a "failure" and said if a retest didn't go well, they might consider going with another vendor.
The test was still underway when KATU News contacted Neves just before noon Thursday. He said the retest started as planned at 11 a.m. and this time, they divided the city into five areas and sent the alerts to each section, one after the other.
The system is designed to send out information during a natural disaster or other large-scale emergency. It is designed to send information to people with a home phone or who are signed up to receive a call or text message on their mobile phone.
The system is designed to call all local landline phones automatically. City officials urge local residents to sign up to receive cell phone calls, emails or text messages at publicalerts.org.
Personal information users provide during registration is kept private and only used to send geographically tailored emergency messages, Neves said.