Instead, the council directed Longmont’s city staff “to utilize new technologies to provide information to our community” when tornadoes or severe weather poses a threat.
The new system may include using a local radio station, mobile-phone text messages, calls to home landlines and messages via computers to warn residents.
Council members voted 7-0 for that approach, although the full electronic warning system — along with other efforts to communicate the approaches of potential disasters — probably won’t be in place until sometime next year.
Some council members expressed concerns about the lag time, while others worried that senior citizens wouldn’t have mobile phones on which to get alerts.
Dan Eamon, the city’s emergency manager, said alerts could be sent via landlines, similar to reverse 911 calls. He said arrangements could be made to alert staffs of assisted and senior living facilities so they could notify residents and get them to safety. He said the city would continue doing everything it does to deliver warnings without the sirens.
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