RICHMOND, Va. — Many Richmond residents say they never received the city's emergency alert about Tuesday's boil water advisory, raising concerns about the effectiveness of the Richmond Ready alert system.
The advisory, linked to issues at the city's water plant, was supposed to reach residents through the subscription-based alert system that launched in February following January's water crisis.
"My daughter told me about it," one resident said.
"One of my colleagues called me and told me about it. And then I went to the WTVR website and I read about it," another resident said.
"A remind message said that they had no water," a third resident shared.
Comments flooded the city's social media Tuesday with people reporting they didn't receive emergency alerts. Others admitted they weren't even aware the alert system existed.
"I wasn't aware that there was one. So I think they need to do a little bit better with that," one resident said.
Public safety crisis communication consultant Gabe Lugo says the alert system uses industry standard technology but is only part of the solution to communication gaps.
"So these systems are great, but there's really a need for the users to go in, log into the website and make sure that they're following the guidance on the city's website to properly configure their profile," Lugo said.
He believes communication could improve if the city adds wireless emergency alerts, a free resource that utilizes geo-fenced targeted messages.
"If you have a cell phone that's within the impacted area, you will receive that alert. And that is great from an accessibility standpoint, because you don't need to know to go to a website, register, fill out a profile and keep that information updated," Lugo said.
Mayor Danny Avula said he is not aware of any issues with the city's alert system. He also addressed public concerns about mixed messaging after a press release sent Tuesday morning indicated that everything was fine, followed just hours later by another message acknowledging problems.
"Within maybe an hour or two ... it was a new set of circumstances," Avula said.
"This is a challenge when you have a dynamic situation. We want to make sure we are consistently providing people with the information as we know it," he added. "I know at times this is going to frustrate people because these situations are dynamic and the information's gonna change, but all we can do is do our best to keep people abreast of the most up-to-date information."
The mayor says they're looking into the diagnostic information to determine if there are any issues with Richmond Ready Alerts. Currently, the city says roughly 5,000 subscribers received the evening notification.
The city plans to continue disseminating information through the media, 311, the Richmond Ready alert system, social media, and the city's website.
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