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By
SANDRA FREDERICK
Staff Writer
NEW
SMYRNA BEACH -- After a brush with danger, Alene Fenzl wonders if she was
in the wrong place at the wrong time because she just didn't hear warnings
about wildfires.
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If you're not on the list
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In case of
emergency, Volusia County subscribes to a service which calls homes in
a geographical area with a warning message. This method has been used
to issue boil water notices, rabies alerts, hurricane emergencies as
well as recently for wildfires.
However, the list does not include cell phone, some Internet phone
service or unlisted phone numbers. A person must register his/her home
number -- an alternate number also may be included. Also, the service
has a listing for manufactured and mobile homes, which might require an
early warning.
To register, visit www.volusia.org/emergency/
and click on Code Red icon.
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The 77-year-old Sugar
Mill homeowner never got a phone call from the county's emergency system or
heard police shouting evacuation warnings via a megaphone. What she got
instead was a call from a neighbor in the late afternoon telling her the
area was being evacuated because of nearby wildfires.
"I am not really
satisfied with the notice," she said.
Fenzl is one of the
many residents who learned this week that if you have an unlisted number or
rely on some Internet phone services or a cell phone, you won't get
so-called emergency call warnings of dangers -- unless you register for
them.
Rebecca Mangold, who
lives just outside the Sugar Mill evacuation area, said she didn't get a
call either.
Mangold was not part of
the calling list because she has a non-published phone number.
"This was a fire
drill," the 34-year-old New Smyrna Beach mother of six said Thursday.
"(Thankfully) we did not have to evacuate but if neighbors had not
called, I would not have known about the evacuation order."
Here's how the system
works. At the request of the city, Volusia County officials said the
emergency notification system the county subscribes to made two series of
computer generated calls to some 5,000 residents in the fire area Sunday
morning telling them to evacuate. The county chooses streets and
neighborhoods from a computer map and tells it to automatically call the
numbers listed in that area.
"It is the fastest
way to notify people," said Charlie Craig, with the county's emergency
office. "It will never be perfect and if we get 60 percent connect
(calls that go through), we are doing great."
A third telephone drive
later in the day went to 3,630 Port Orange residents living to the north of
the fires, along Hensel and Hawks roads, Water's Edge and River's Edge.
Officials were worried the winds would change the direction of the fire and
threaten those neighborhoods.
But not all numbers are
on the list.
David DiGiacomo, vice
president of operations with Emergency Communications Network Inc., in Ormond
Beach, said his company provides numbers within a geographical area, which
are collected from credit bureaus and marketing lists. Other than that, a
person must register with the county to ensure they are listed.
"If it is a cell
phone or an Internet service, it is up to the resident to get us the
number," he said.
Fenzl said next time
she will get the call.
"I would like to
make sure I am on the call list," she said. "What if we are
asleep?"
sandra.frederick@news-jrnl.com
mark.johnson@news-jrnl.com
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