In the comments section following a CBC.ca story on the devastating fire that wiped out a large chunk of Slave Lake, Alta. ?tommy d fan? wrote:
?Canada needs a nation wide policy of how to deal with what will become more common in the future. Floods, fires, tornadoes, droughts, etc.?
I disagree with his point on cancelling fighter jets to pay for this, but his original tenant is sound. A few bad years are turning into more than a few bad years.
If ever there was a year emergency preparedness has been put to the limit, 2011 is shaping up to be it. Floods hit hard in Manitoba and Quebec. A wildfire that truly met the definition of ?wild? razed a large portion of Slave Lake, in hours.
The fortunate thing is few lives has been lost, although there has been some with the flooding. At the time of writing, no fatalities were yet reported from Slave Lake, but then, it may take a while to determine if every shut-in elderly person was able to leave in time.
In the case of Slave Lake, the ferocity of the fire left the people with little time to evacuate. Some reported delays and confusion in getting word, or determining where to go.
But at least they had enough time to get out, with hours, or at least several minutes, of advanced warning.
This is not the case in a tornado, or tsunami, however.
I remember several years ago stopping at the surplus store at Maymont, and finding several three-phase powered air raid sirens. These sirens were from a time long passed, when it was expected there would be a less than 30 minutes warning of impending nuclear attack. These sirens were placed in communities throughout the nation.
The problem with air raid sirens is they only have so much range, people in vehicles or indoors can?t hear them, and you need thousands upon thousands to cover each community in Canada. Plus, they need to be maintained.
Today, however, we have a new form of infrastructure: cell phones. Nearly everyone has one now, and I mean everyone. I have met two nine-year-olds with their own phones in recent weeks.
Making a nation-wide alert system is simply a matter of programming, and not very difficult programming, at that. If my BlackBerry can tell me where the nearest ATM is, I think it should be able to warn me of an impending tsunami.
The nature of cellular networks for emergency announcements is ideal - you send the signal only to towers in the immediate danger area. Thus, Saskatchewan folks would never get the aforementioned tsunami warning the way someone in Tofino, B.C., might, but we could get a tornado warning if one has been issued for the area around that particular tower.
Such a system should also have a way of overriding the phone - turning the ringer to loud, perhaps using a distinctive, shrill ring tone and interrupting ongoing conversations. If the phone is on standby, but still receiving a signal, the system should be able to activate it. This could be accomplished through an over-the-network firmware update on pretty much all phones easily enough.
The important thing is to eliminate the ?cry wolf? factor. Unlike the U.S. emergency broadcast system, which we see on cable channels, I don?t want to hear my phone go off at a certain time each day, month, or even year. TV advertising could easily explain how the system works, including the ring tone. The only time I should hear it would be in cases of real, imminent, life or death emergency, like Slave Lake.
Not only could it say something like, ?Wildfires swiftly approaching town of Slave Lake. There is an imminent danger to life and limb. Everyone must evacuate immediately!? but it could also give instructions, like which highway is open, or closed. The town?s website provided some direction, but that would be pretty much the last thing I would think of in a crisis.
The idea was even shown on the science fiction CBS show Jericho a few years ago, when, in one episode, the nuclear-war ravaged U.S. government was able to get out a brief message to everyone whose phone still worked.
The beauty of this solution is the infrastructure is already in place, and growing daily. The implementation would be simple and inexpensive. And we?re already paying for it.
Each cell bill has a 911 fee attached to it. The millions collected for one month across all cell users could easily pay for implementing this system.
And if a nuclear war should come our way, we can all get the warning to ?duck and cover.?
? Brian Zinchuk is editor of Pipeline News. He can be reached at brian.zinchuk@sasktel.net. That e-mail, by the way, also goes to his cellphone.
