Saskatoon to test notifynow alert system

The City of Saskatoon will test its notifynow emergency alert system on Tuesday night.

People are scheduled to receive the alert around 7 p.m. through text, email or call.

“In our system, we have over 88,000 contacts,” Saskatoon’s director of emergency planning Pamela Goulden-McLeod told 650 CKOM “close to 25,000 of those are citizen opt-ins.”

Opting-in to the system means people have created a profile and selected how they want to be contacted in an emergency.

“When you do that (opt-in) you can sign up to five different addresses,” she explained. “You can sign up your home, your parents’ home, your workplace.”

Goulden-McLeod pointed to a tanker truck that turned over on College Drive in 2017 as an example of how the system works.

The semi carrying dangerous anhydrous ammonia rolled over snarling traffic and bringing up concerns about leaks or ruptures.

“We were able to target and geographically locate the people that needed to get information immediately,” she said.

During the rollover and clean-up efforts, she said the notifynow system was used to keep nearby residents informed and safe.

To sign up for personal alerts you can register on the city’s website or call 306-975-3210.