Emergency alert issues with Lyon County’s messaging partner appear to be resolved or very near that point.
Lyon County Emergency Communications Director Roxanne Van Gundy says final testing should be taking place soon after Everbridge, the county’s mass-messaging alert partner the last three years, sent two erroneous tornado warnings to the county and opt-in residents Monday afternoon.
Van Gundy says an Emergency Communications staffer has been conducting several tests the past few days
Lyon County has partnered with Everbridge mainly for large-scale events like Dirty Kanza and Glass Blown Open to get weather-related text alerts out to a large number of people in a short amount of time, but there had been some issues over the past year as the county worked to tailor the system to its mass-messaging needs. Other issues developed over the last two weeks — before last Thursday’s severe weather episode that involved confirmed tornado touchdowns, quarter-sized hail and torrential rainfall. Dispatchers had to push the alerts manually instead of those going out automatically last Thursday, taking time and attention away from a high call volume that developed.
During KVOE’s Newsmaker 2 segment Wednesday, Van Gundy also asked residents to keep in mind emergency dispatchers are a resource in the same vein as emergency responders and law enforcement.
Van Gundy urged residents not to call during severe weather events if they have questions about the status of tornadic activity, outdoor warning sirens, public shelter availability, power outages or flooded roads. Residents are encouraged to call for non-severe weather emergencies.
