Comment on Water Boil Advisory
philpo@feddit.org 1 day ago
That can easily be done by cell broadcasts (which can absolutely have different stages of priority nowadays), mass-SMS (every cellphone that first registers in an affected area gets a SMS, via designated disaster management apps, by placing handouts on peoples doors (you usually do that by identify people at risks e.g. homecare patients, then you go by high to low risk areas - depending on the search of the contamination) and last but not least a few trucks with loudspeakers (even regular cop cars do) do wonders.
What happens here if someone is not at home when called, is not an actual customer of the water company, etc.?
There are dozens of better ways than how this was handled in OPs case.
Source: I consult community and disaster response organisations on this stuff.
They had four methods in OP’s case. OP describes “a system no one knows about,” which sounds like a system OP doesn’t know about. They call you, unless you refused to put your phone number on your account, and then what? Are they supposed to go door to door? It’s an emergency.
The entitlement here is staggering. If you want to be informed, you gotta give them a way to inform you. If you hide away for whatever reason, you run the risk of missing announcements.
I literally told you the actual scientific approach that is currently used by disaster response management professionals. The methods used in OPs case are utterly insufficient and potentially dangerous. I also gave you an example why.
So…
through phone if you have a phone on your water account, through a system no one knew existed
I interpreted this as one system. So its:
Water website, you’d have to happen to stumble upon
Obscure opt-in phone system
If that’s the case, the complaint is reasonable, as the water service is basically assuming Facebook (and word of mouth) are the only active notifications folks need.
But yeah, if OP opted out of SMS warnings or something, that’s more on them.
I didn’t get text alerts because I am not the person who pays the water! Also those only happen if you have a phone connected to the account which is absolutely not required and several periods in the area did not know about.
The “system no one knew about” was the township app. Which is a thing, sort of. Sometimes works. Different system. Four total things. Website, Facebook, text alerts if you are paying for water and have a phone connected, and a township app. Which the township apparently recently changed to a different app thing.
Yeah, see, that makes sense. A random app and an optional account number are not reliable notification systems. They can’t just assume everyone will have those.
AstralPath@lemmy.ca 1 day ago
Ideally the advisory is going out over the radio too. People will hear it while driving and then spread by word of mouth.