An emergency preparedness drill about a failure at the Hardy Dam in Newaygo County went a bit sideways Tuesday after people thought it was a real emergency and they needed to evacuate.
Valerie Duer has lived near the Hardy Dam for 25 years. She said that alert was a rude awakening.
“All of a sudden my phone was making a noise I’d never heard before. And so I grabbed it and it said ‘evacuate,’” said Duer.
Still in her pajamas, Duer said she started grabbing her important papers, a few clothes, and called her neighbor to let her know.
“I started putting stuff in the car, was going to go get my computer and get my dog. And then I got a phone call that said, ‘Don’t worry, it’s just a test. It was just a test,’” said Duer.
Luckily her friend who also got the same alert, had her son contact Croton Township and found out it was a test.
Newaygo County Commissioner chairman Bryan Kolk said they weren’t the only ones confused by the alerts.
“It ended up with about out of the 9,500 people that it went out to, about 135 contacted our central dispatch. One hundred of them contacted us in a non-emergency manner. About 35 of them contacted us with it as an emergency and had questions about what was going on,” said Kolk.
Kolk said they are looking into what caused the confusion.
Public information Officer with Michigan State Police, Spl/Lt. Michelle Robinson, said they think it might have been caused by confusing the word test with text, leading people to think they were getting an emergency text, not an emergency test alert. Robinson said the confusion may also be caused by seeing just part of the message.
“As the alert system went out, some of the individuals that got the alert either on their phone or on the television stations, they would see the alert come out across the scroll of their TVs and they missed the test portion of it and thought that it was a real life scenario,” said Robinson.
Robinson added that they are thinking of ways to improve the alerts.
“The one take away from this is that we’re very thankful that the emergency alert system did work and that citizens are listening and watching the alert systems to keep them safe because that’s our number one goal,” said Robinson.
Robinson said additional alerts went out as soon as they realized the confusion to clarify that it was only a test.
For people who live in the area like Duer, she said she’s grateful we have the emergency alert system. She said Tuesday’s drill taught her a few things.
“Maybe that was a good thing for all of us. Maybe I should get my papers together. Maybe I should have a go bag kind of thing so that we’re ready to move if there’s anything horrible like that happened,” said Duer.
