Operator and computer error combined to keep tornado warnings from being sent to some Fort Collins residents.
Emergency-dispatch employees triggered a new countywide alert system to warn residents of a possible tornado Monday afternoon.
But the system failed because the operator who mapped out the area to contact with e-mails, phone calls and text messages mistakenly drew out overlapping neighborhoods.
The computerized system, which has been used by the agency more than a dozen times for other emergencies, wasn’t designed to send the messages if geographic areas overlapped, said Kimberly Culp, Larimer Emergency Telephone Authority executive director.
Nor was the system capable of immediately sending an error message that would have explained why it wasn’t working, Culp said.
Larimer County agencies paid Glendale, Calif.-based Everbridge $150,000 to start the system in September and are charged $95,000 annually for the ability to send out unlimited alerts.
The operator “made this error and the system kicked back a report saying we didn’t do the alert,” Culp said. “It should have had an error screen that popped up and said you can’t do that; you have overlapping (areas).”
More than 100,000 phone numbers and e-mail addresses did not receive the notification that a storm was bearing down on residents of south-central Fort Collins.
Everbridge released a statement explaining that its system should have told the operator there was a problem as the neighborhoods were mapped.
The company has created a workaround that will ensure the system will not fail if an operator enters overlapping areas. Meanwhile, Everbridge is developing an error screen that will inform operators of mistakes, Culp said.
Because the operator had been trained not to map overlapping areas, Culp said, Everbridge likely will not have to pay a penalty.
Tom McGhee: 303-954-1671 or tmcghee@denverpost.com
