On the afternoon of Aug. 22, as the flames were racing down Peavine Mountain, Emergency Management Administrator Kelly Echeverria logged into the county’s alert system to warn residents.
Washoe County uses a software suite called Rave, which is owned by Motorola, as a hub to send alerts over the radio and TV, cell phones, and social media. The program is supposed to work with the federal government’s Emergency Alert System (EAS), a network that allows public officials to communicate over the airwaves during a crisis.
Thousands of push notifications went out to cell phones registered with the county, but broadcast alerts never did. Echeverria doesn’t know why.
“Rave has said to us that we did not check the box for EAS. I know that I did,” she said.
Rave didn’t get back to us in time for this story, but Echeverria said they’re working with the company and the federal government to figure out what went wrong.
Editor’s note: This is a developing story. KUNR will publish a longer look at the failure of EAS activation during the Hawk Fire later this week.
