Severe weather warning
Thanks to former Emergency Planning Officer, I found out about the existence of the phone number for the community to get severe weather warnings. As there is a severe weather warning for tomorrow, I decided to call 709913 to check what the situation was.
As advised by the former EPO, the message consists of a two-year-old test message.
How many people have called this number? And, if it is not being maintained why is it still operational?
As advised by the former EPO, the message consists of a two-year-old test message.
How many people have called this number? And, if it is not being maintained why is it still operational?
3 comments:
The recorded message seems to have changed this afternoon to something rather defensive.
It's probably just a total and absolute coincidence that it stayed as a test message for 2 years, and was only changed on the same afternoon this blog posting went up...
Council spokesman's reply to similar question last week.
No, the Comhairle didn’t ignore the line. It was set up as an additional line which can be activated if needed in a major emergency to reduce the level of calls going to police, comhairle etc. It remains in place and can be activated if required. It was never intended to be a 24 hour weather line.
It is a typical Comhairle response to deny something that they have not been accused of. It was always made clear to me as the Emergency Planning Officer, that it was intended to be used as a public information line in the event of "adverse" weather. I am not aware that anyone had the expectation that it was to be a "24 hour weather line". See text below of an email to me from Donald Macrae, the officer from Technical Services who was assisting Katherine Mackinnon with this project.
I make no apology for typographical errors in the text - they are not mine.
From: Donald Macrae
Sent: 29 November 2005 08:27
To: Murdo MacLeod - Emergency Planning
Subject: Emergency/Public information line
Hi Murdo
Following on from our recent conversation and your e-mail on the 1571 Bt premier Call Minder system I am of the opinion that it is a good and cheap solution to the problem of disseminating information on adverse condition and road closures to the public.
Two important features are that it can be operated remotely and also that we already have the line.
As this is a service that I expect will be operated by both Emergency Planning and Faire I feel that you should lead with the setting up and implementation.of the system.We need to get this done quickly as the people in the Southern Isles feel that they have no information source at present.
All I see that is needed to get something off the ground quickly is that we get 1571 established on the line..(What is the Number?).
One we have that,all we need to do is get some standards for the wording which can be used by who ever inputs information..We want to keep is simple and concise.
After that it is up to everybody with information to keep the system operators up to date with what is going on in the outside world.
Can I leave it with you you to progress this into a usable system and to liaise with Faire operators to agree how to implement the system..
You know much more about these things than I do.
Regards
Donald
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