PORT ANGELES –Emergency managers in Clallam County are getting a new tool in their repertoire.
County and city officials took a course on Tuesday in how to operate the county’s new emergency notification system, a high-tech phone system that can contact thousands of residents and deliver a 30-second, pre-recorded message in a matter of minutes.
The telephone notification system — sometimes referred to as a “reverse 9-1-1” — could be used for situations where a large number of people need to be immediately notified about an emergency, such as a tsunami warning or a hazardous material spill.
To notify all of the more than 60,000 people in Clallam County, it would take about 15 to 20 minutes, said Richard Huxley from Twenty First Century Communications, the Columbus, Ohio-based company that is installing the system.
“It’s everything you would need,” Huxley said.
The system is a good tool, said Clallam County Emergency Manager Joe Ciarlo, but it’s just one of many.
And most tools for getting a message to a large group of people have their limitations, he said.
“If we lost telephones, then what? You go door to door. That works,” he said.
Officials are currently working out the details and protocol for which agency will throw the switch on the system, he said.