Jason FilsingerEmergency Canada’s decision to end Weatheradio this March is disappointing. Their recommendation to use the internet/app/cellphone as an alternative is laughable. We are eliminating our emergency communication redundancies, forcing monthly payments for people to have access to emergency notifications, and excluding the portion of our population that either can’t afford, doesn’t have access to the internet, a cellphone or cell service. Their decision will endanger lives.
I think a lot of politicians forget that there are people that don’t live in cities. This is going to put so many people in remote and rural areas in danger. My parents live in an area where their only internet access is via line of sight wireless networking, guess when it goes down… that’s right, during storms. Cell service is unreliable at the best of times with most areas in their house being complete dead zones. And that’s a pretty common situation for people in rural areas.
An initial emergency alert via cellphone might seem like an ok alternative for someone that has put zero thought into making this decision. Let’s assume you live in a city or town, what happens when the power goes out, how do people trying to navigate an emergency situation stay updated when the cell towers go down? How useful is your internet modem without power? What happens if the emergency is an earthquake or flood that wipes out power for days/weeks. How do you get evacuation information?