The flooding caused by the recent “atmospheric river” was an unwelcome reminder that Bowen Island is not immune from the challenges posed by more intense weather systems.
Bowen Island Municipality is urging residents to sign up for its free emergency notification service.
It is now using Alertable to send emergency notifications. If you previously subscribed to BowENS, your contact information was moved to the new system, but you will only get CRITICAL alerts. To get ADVISORY alerts, the municipality recommends that you get the Alertable app on your smartphone.
In the event of a local emergency, social media and Alertable will play a key role in communicating information and instructions to the community.
Alertable provides you with important emergency information, such as imminent threats (e.g. wildfire) and local incidents that affect specific areas of Bowen Island (e.g. road closure). Alertable can send emergency notifications island-wide or to targeted areas, which can be helpful for neighbourhood-specific emergency directions such as evacuation orders.
Once you have the app installed on your smartphone, you can go into "Settings" to customize location and types of notifications you will receive. BIM recommends you go into “Advanced Advisory Settings” and ensure that all of the various alert types have been selected.
Examples of ADVISORY (be aware) alerts:
- Road closure
- Water service interruption
- Weather alerts (from Environment Canada)
- Example of CRITICAL (imminent danger) alerts:
- Wildfire
- Evacuation order
- Amber alert
You can sign up to receive emergency notifications by text message, email, or phone. However, the municipality encourages residents to download the Alertable app for iOS and Android smartphones. Signing up is easy and can be done from your mobile phone, tablet, or computer.
If you have any questions, please contact BIM at 604-947-4255 ext 251 or bim@bimbc.ca, or read the Frequently Asked Questions section of the website, bimbc.ca.
People are also encouraged to follow Bowen Island Municipality on Facebook and Twitter and to bookmark the Emergency Operations Centre page on its website.
