The Call No One Wants to Receive

Just a few days ago, CRESA wrote a blog entry entitled "Clarifying Cell Phone Alerts" where we talked about the Emergency Community Notification System (ECNS).  And, for about 540 homes and businesses in the Fruit Valley area, you received one of those calls around 12:45 a.m. this morning.

The activation of the Emergency Community Notification System occurred at the request of the Vancouver Police Department who was searching for two missing 8-year old children.

The notification was sent out to a 2-block radius surrounding the location where the children were last seen.  We are happy to tell you this morning that the children were located, safe and sound.

Unfortunately, emergency conditions do not pay attention to the clock or occur at convenient times.  We recognize that these calls likely woke people up and were an inconvience.  But, we do ask you to remember that if this was your child, you would likely want emergency services personnel using available resources and asking for as many helpful eyes in the community as possible.

Thank you, Fruit Valley residents, for taking these calls this morning.

The preparedness question of the morning is: 

Are you ready with paper and pen near your phone so that you can write down key emergency details? 

Put some paper and pen in accessible locations today if you aren't!