The town of LaSalle is implementing an Emergency Alert System.
The system allows residents to enter their contact information, either text, cell, e-mail or landline, so they can be notified in the event of an emergency.
The alert system would be used for emergencies like floods, large fires, evacuation notices, or boil water advisories.
Fire Chief Dave Sutton says it only works, if people sign up. "We're encouraging residents to go online and sign up for the service." he explains, "When they log-on to the website there's very intuitive and detailed instructions."
Sutton says the system allows users to control how the town sends critical information in a timely manner.
"One of the nice things about this particular service is it's very flexible in terms of the contact information that the individual resident selects. As an example, if they perfer to be notified by text message, or email or home number."
The more residents who sign up, the better, "We will be, probably in the fall, probably be doing a beta test," Sutton says "Where we'll select different regions and neighbourhoods, and hopefully some more awareness will come out of that as well."
Residents can register at www.lasallealerts.ca.
The system costs the town $8,000 a year.