Fort Collins tornado alert system fails | coloradoan.com | The Coloradoan,

Fort Collins tornado alert system fails | coloradoan.com | The Coloradoan,

Fort Collins officials tried and failed Monday to warn tens of thousands of residents and businesses about a tornado warning using a new countywide emergency alert system.



An estimated 100,000 phone numbers and e-mail addresses did not receive the notification from the city that would have alerted those in the south-central part of the city.

The cause of the failure is still being determined by the Larimer Emergency Telephone Authority, according to Kimberly Culp, the organization’s executive director.

She said Everbridge, the system’s vendor formerly known as 3n, worked Monday to determine if it was responsible for the error but could not find any flaws in its operating system. Culp said Everbridge successfully sent out similar alerts in Aurora and Morgan County at about the same time Fort Collins tried to send out its message.

Technical workers for the city of Fort Collins will continue to work today to determine if an error occurred at the city’s dispatch center, where the message is sent from.
Agencies in Larimer County paid an initial fee of $150,000 to launch the system in September and pay an annual fee of $95,000 to send out unlimited alerts.

Culp said Monday’s failed alert would have been the first weather-related message sent out using the system, which has successfully been used 18 times and successfully tested more than 50 times.

Mike Gavin, Fort Collins’ emergency manager, said the alert was intended to be sent out minutes after a tornado warning was issued by the National Weather Service to areas along Horsetooth Road near College Avenue and Drake Road. He said the area was believed to be a location ahead of the storm’s path.

The system notifies all landlines in the area using a 911 database and any cell-phone number or e-mail address signed up to receive the notifications. The alerts can be sent through phone calls, text messages or e-mails.

When functioning properly, the system can take several minutes to send out the notifications, which is why Gavin said it’s important for residents to take other steps to be informed of potentially dangerous, quickly developing weather.

“Unfortunately, it is not the answer to tornados,” Gavin said of the alert system. “A tornado is here, and 15 minutes later, it’s gone. Unfortunately, a lot of the city thinks you can push a button and notify thousands of residents within three minutes. Most emergency systems, the best of those are where you have a lot more lead time to notify people.”

No alerts were issued during the storm by Larimer County officials because the storm was moving too quickly to send out an alert based on the information available, Sheriff’s Office Major Justin Smith said.

“We’re going to put people in their basements multiple times per year to the point that it gets to a Chicken Little, the-sky-is-falling kind of thing,” Smith said. “The alerts are more for if (a tornado) touches down and starts moving.”

Smith said county dispatchers received what turned out to be false reports from residents of a tornado touching down in Fort Collins. Smith said one false report indicated a tornado was tearing up homes along College Avenue, which he referenced as an example of why confirmation is important before an alert is sent out.

“If we jump into panic, then we’re not doing our job well,” Smith said.

Both Smith and Gavin said the system is more effective when alerting residents of slower developing weather patterns. Alerts are also sent out when there are missing people, floods, wildfires, natural-gas leaks and police activity requiring evacuation or taking shelter, according to LETA’s Web site.