Chilliwack is joining its municipal neighbours in adopting Alertable to get the word out to residents, businesses and even visitors in critical events like a fire or flood.
The Alertable notifications can come by text, email, phone, website, mobile app, or home smart speaker.
“Knowing where to find information during an emergency is an important part of emergency preparedness for every household,” said Mayor Ken Popove. “This new app will allow us to increase our communication with residents during emergencies, and I would encourage anyone who lives, works, or visits Chilliwack to sign up for alerts.”
Alertable is a made-in-Canada app for community notifications that sends out public alerts, and was used extensively by various local governments in the Fraser Valley floods of 2021.
Council approved a new public alerting policy, D-25, for Chilliwack at the April 18 council meeting.
What is the criteria for an alert to be issued?
The event must be deemed “urgent, severe, certain and local,” and alerts are authorized by designated director and team of Chilliwack’s Emergency Operations Centre.
“Because nearby organizations already use Alertable, the City of Chilliwack already has over 5,500 subscribers subscribed to receive alerts in the area,” said Jamie Leggatt, director of communications, in her presentation to council.
New subscribers can sign up here and they can personalize notifications by type and severity, by location and other options.
Coun. Chris Kloot called the advanced technology used by Alertable “a welcome addition to our community.”
Mayor Popove commented at the end of the council discussion: “I am done with disasters. This will be a great tool for the toolbox, but I hope we don’t have to use it.”
RELATED: FVRD embraced Alertable the year after floods
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