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Testing! The City of Nanaimo will be sending a test emergency alert October 27

10,000 Nanaimo residents have registered and are ready for an alert!

NEWS RELEASE - Distributed October 22, 2020 9:00 AM

Summary

The City of Nanaimo will be sending a test alert on October 27 at 10:15am through its emergency notification system, Voyent Alert! The test alert will go out by SMS text, phone call, email and as a notification through the app, depending on what type of messaging each individual has registered for.

At the one year anniversary of introducing Voyent Alert! to residents of Nanaimo, registration has surpassed 10,000 subscribers. The City wants to see that number grow quickly. In the event of an emergency, such as an earthquake, this alert system will be a vital way of alerting and updating the public.

Voyent Alert! uses modern technology to be as flexible and customizable as possible. Notifications can be localized and sent to residents in an area as small as a city block, to any size of neighbourhood or to the entire City of Nanaimo. Users can register to receive alerts about as many different locations in Nanaimo as they want to, and by selecting optional GPS tracking, can receive alerts based on their current location within Nanaimo when the messages are pushed out. Please note: Voyent Alert! does not track and keep records of a subscriber's GPS location at any time accept to push out an alert.

If a critical incident notification is pushed out, the message will include need-to-know details, including a very brief overview of the incident and instructions if any action is required. Action instructions in extreme situations may include evacuation details, lock-down instructions, or avoid-the-area direction.

All residents and visitors to the City of Nanaimo are encouraged to look at the Voyent Alert! program and sign-up for free. It's a simple process and it's anonymous! Visit www.nanaimo.ca/goto/alerts for more details, and download the Voyent Alert! app from GooglePlay or Apple's App Store.

Link to Strategic Plan: Encouraging our community to subscribe to our emergency alert notification system supports a safer and more livable community.

Key Points

  • The City of Nanaimo will be sending a test alert on October 27 at 10:15am through its emergency notification system, Voyent Alert!
  • More than 10,000 Nanaimo residents have registered for the Voyent Alert! emergency notification system.

Quotes

"Our 10,000 plus subscribers shows that City residents are becoming more aware and emergency ready. Really, if there's an emergency in any part of our city, wouldn't you want to know about it? I sure would and that's what this system is designed to do; to communicate with the public when we need it the most."

Leonard Krog
Mayor
City of Nanaimo

"The City of Nanaimo Voyent Alert! system provides residents with a variety of options to receive critical emergency information in the event of an emergency that impacts our City, such as an earthquake. I encourage all residents to sign up for this system as part of your emergency preparation and be ready to receive our first test alert from the system on October 27th at 10:15 am."

Karen Lindsay
Emergency Program Manager
City of Nanaimo

Quick Facts

  • When using the Voyent Alert! app, please click 'allow' when asked about push notifications if you would like the messages to appear on your phone when the app is not otherwise open on your screen.
  • Want to be notified in more than one way? Simply register each method - phone call, sms text, email or push notification through the app. The Voyent Alert! app is available on both the Apple App Store and GooglePlay.
  • In the future, the City may occasionally push out non-emergency notifications to app, email and sms text subscribers with notifications such as weather advisories, street cleaning or more. These notifications are optional during the registration process, and will look different than an emergency or critical incident notification.

Images

A sample image of two different notifications
A sample image of two different notifications

Videos

Voyent Alert! introduction video with Mayor Leonard Krog
Voyent Alert! introduction video with Mayor Leonard Krog
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Contact:

Karen Lindsay
Emergency Program Manager
City of Nanaimo
250-755-4572

Print News Release

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