In an effort to keep up with new technology and improve warnings to residents, the city of Denver began a much-needed upgrade of its outdoor warning sirens yesterday. The system will feature improved reliability and the ability to target warnings. Read about Denver’s new system on Examiner.com.
The City of Thornton's new Emergency Management T-Alerts will inform residents of a wide variety of weather and civil emergencies.
Sitting at the western edge of tornado alley, the Denver metro area is home to severe weather of all forms. In an effort to keep residents aware of the dangers Mother Nature brings every year, the City of Thornton is set to roll out an email alert system.
Seeking to correct that lapse, Thornton’s Office of Emergency Management presented a significant enhancement to the city’s T-Alert system to city council at a planning session last night.
Emergency Manager Gene Putman explained that with the proliferation of email on mobile devices like cellular phones, the system will allow the city to send out warnings to residents in a matter of seconds. The system was tested during the February snowstorms and was a resounding success.
Dispatches can be sent out by the city’s emergency management personnel or in an urgent situation, the new 911 center. Spanish translations to the messages will also be included in the emails.
Putman said, “Within 30 seconds of a warning being issued by the National Weather Service we can have that critical information out to residents.”
Uses for the emergency management service will include obvious items such as tornado watches and warnings and severe hail or flooding. Also thrown into the mix will be important announcements about major snow events, hazardous material spills and other types of civil alerts.
Jack Ethredge, City Manager, is no stranger to disasters having served as Emergency Manager along the Gulf Coast during two hurricanes. He told council the system gives the city an “important, broader way to communicate.”
While the new system will help to keep residents safe, officials also remind residents that they must take responsibility for their own safety as well and stay aware of developing weather. Local news media should be monitored and residents should own a NOAA All Hazards Radio.
Note: In addition to the city’s alert system, you can subscribe to ThorntonWeather.com’s alert system. We believe the two systems will complement each other. Our system provides all watches and warnings from the National Weather Service while the city’s will maintain a focus on the major events.
Thornton also continues to improve and refine its disaster preparedness as a city government.
Emergency management personnel are receiving important training on disaster response and new emergency procedures are being developed all city employees.
When disaster strikes, the speed and accuracy of a response is essential and Emergency Investigation Area Teams have been created to aid on this front. Each team will be comprised of personnel from key city departments. These teams will be responsible for one of six Emergency Investigation Areas and when needed, will be deployed to document a situation and provide direction.
On June 3, 1981 a tornado struck Thornton in what is the worst twister to have struck the Denver metro area. Despite this, Thornton does not have any sort of emergency alert system to warn citizens of tornadoes or other civil disasters. Image courtesy the City of Thornton archives.
As we have discussed before, the City of Thornton is lacking any type of system to alert citizens of severe weather like we have seen recently. In the last week, parts of Thornton have been under Tornado Warnings as funnel clouds circled in the sky and citizens are understandably concerned.
We at ThorntonWeather.com continually remind people that the Denver metro area is at the far western edge of Tornado Alley and funnel clouds, tornadoes, hail and other types of severe weather are not unusual at all. It was 28 years ago last Wednesday in fact that the costliest tornado to ever hit the Denver metro area struck Thornton. Accounts vary but 53 people were injured, at least 25 homes were destroyed and hundreds more damaged.
The danger is real – tornadoes can and do strike in the Thornton area. In some ways it is surprising that the city did not implement some sort of system in the wake of the tornado in 1981. Many municipalities in the metro area do have warning sirens including Denver, Aurora, Englewood, Commerce City and Brighton.
Thornton Mayor Erik Hansen has told ThorntonWeather.com that the city will look at ways to inform citizens when severe weather is imminent. This may take the form of utilizing the reverse 911 system or as we suggested to him, a possible new text alert system that would deliver alerts to citizen’s mobile phones. It is our firm belief that some sort of system to be used not only for severe weather but for other civil disasters is a wise and prudent investment for the city to take.
The Denver area is at the western edge of Tornado Alley and as we have seen historically and in recent days, the danger is real. Click image for larger view. Image courtesy NOAA.
This week the city posted some tornado safety tips on its website that are worth reviewing. You may also wish to review our Severe Weather 101 series which provides more in depth information on the entire array of spring and summer severe weather (links below).
We will continue our conversations with the city about how they can improve communication with Thornton residents about severe weather and keep you updated as appropriate. If you are so inclined, contact your city council representatives and let them know you want to see Thornton implement an emergency alert system.
For those that may not have noticed it in the most recent issue of Inside Thornton, the city has launched a new service called Thornton Connected. This new website and system allows area residents access to all sorts of new information from the city. First is a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) section of the website that covers the entire breadth of city services. That same information is also available by phone. Second is an email subscription service that allows area residents to receive periodic emails from the city on a range of topics from just about every city department.
We have subscribed to many of the email newsletters and have them to be very informative. The city is also doing a great job of ensuring the number of messages isn’t overwhelming and is only sending out the important stuff. We commend the City of Thornton on this new service for residents!
At the current time the system is only for non-emergency messages. We do wish and hope the city will consider expanding the system to include emergency messages such as tornado warnings, Amber Alerts and other emergency alerts. The city does not have an emergency siren system or any other way to disseminate emergency information to residents and we believe this would be a valuable and potentially life saving service. A number of municipalities across the country and in Colorado have implemented such systems. We are going to talk to the city about this and will update you when we learn more about their plans.
