Commissioners discuss emergency notification

The Washington County Emergency Management Commission talked about Washington?s April boil order at its meeting Wednesday night. The commissioners discussed how to best notify the public in the event of another boil order or other emergency. They agreed that the communications center should be responsible for alerting towns of an emergency. Communications Supervisor Cara Sorrells said her office was in the process of acquiring a device to automatically alert people of an emergency, known as a Wireless Emergency Notification System (WENS).

A few members of the audience said communication was not good during Washington?s boil order in late April. Washington was under a boil order for a few days at that time because the city lost pressure in its water distribution system, which made it susceptible to a bacterial invasion.

Dennis Ostwinkle of the Washington office of the Department of Natural Resources said the emergency notification process in Washington needs to improve.             ?Some people got the message and some did not,? said Ostwinkle.

Jennine Wolf of the Washington County Environmental Health Department learned of the boil order from her neighbor.

?I called Cara?s department and asked if there was a boil order,? said Wolf. ?They said yes. I asked if any of the restaurants had been called. They said no, there are way too many. I said I would take care of it. The other thing that was really not handled well was the public message going out.?

Wolf said that some of the restaurant owners who called her believed they could use their dishwasher. She said they were not supposed to use their dishwashers during the boil order.

Sorrells said that the safety center is not always the first entity to learn of emergencies such as boil orders.

?That is a good idea, but it doesn?t usually happen that way,? she said. ?In many cases, such as the boil orders in Crawfordsville, we didn?t know about them until later.?

Washington County Public Health Director Edie Nebel was also at the meeting. Nebel said she found out from the environmental health department who was in charge of notifying the restaurants.

?Since we?re a countywide entity, we don?t worry about the city-proper as much because it has its own government,? said Nebel. ?When it became a public health emergency, then we were a bit alarmed because we thought there should have been a unified message going out. We had a lot of phone calls with a lot of misinformation.?

Ostwinkle recommended that each town have its own protocol for handling emergencies. He also said public health should compile a list of the things water can be used for during a boil order.

?Columbus Junction was a prime example in 2008,? said Ostwinkle. ?They rigged up some water but it wasn?t safe to drink.?

Wolf said she already has such a list for restaurants.

?I worry tremendously about the day care centers,? said Wolf. ?A lot of the population didn?t know about it.?

Wolf asked public health chairwoman Wendy Miller how she found out about the boil order, and Miller said she read about it in the newspaper.

Washington Police officer Ron See said it?s difficult to notify everyone.

?The word was put out there,? said See. ?You?re going to miss some people, especially this time of year when people are outside.?

Washington County Emergency Management Coordinator Larry Smith said the problem was not getting the word out about the boil order but rather the subsequent announcements about how the water could be used. Smith said he would investigate how other counties in the state handle emergency notification.

Sorrells said Washington County will soon implement a Wireless Emergency Notification System (WENS). WENS is a service whereby residents sign up to be notified in the event of an emergency. Residents choose the means by which they are notified, such as by an e-mail, a text message or a phone call. When an emergency is announced, all the people who signed up for WENS will be notified in the manner they prefer.

Sorrells said the safety center is in the process of deciding which events will warrant an emergency notification. Some of the events she expects to be worthy of a notification are tornado watches and warnings, boil orders and child abductions.