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SES prefers doorknocking to digital alerts

In the wake of Victoria's devastating floods, the Victoria State Emergency Services say doorknocking is quicker than SMS to alert small communities of impending danger.
Written by Luke Hopewell, Contributor

In the wake of Victoria's devastating floods, the Victoria State Emergency Services (SES) say doorknocking is quicker than SMS to alert small communities of impending danger.

Emergency SMS notification

An example of an extreme weather warning sent via SMS by Telstra. (Extreme Weather SMS Alert image by Andy & Anna Kelk, CC2.0)

SES spokesperson Tim Wiebusch said telecommunications could fail in an emergency.

"Sometimes with small communities, it is quicker to doorknock [to alert citizens of the danger] ... there's no guarantee the technology will always work," Wiebusch said today.

Lachlan Quick, another SES spokesperson, told ZDNet Australia that doorknocking is preferable in small communities.

"A lot of people only have landlines in those [small] communities. Often we find that doorknocking works day or night," Quick said.

"There's no one method that's foolproof, we look to source whole suite of [evacuation] notification methods."

When ZDNet Australia contacted Telstra for comment on stand-alone uses of the emergency alert system, the telco declined to comment instead directing queries to the Office of the Emergency Services Commissioner.

Last year, the Victorian Government committed $15 million into a project that saw Telstra construct a phone-based warning system, designed to alert residents to life-threatening emergencies and natural disasters.

The system issues recorded voice or text messages to fixed and mobile phones to apprise residents of fire situations, and if required, provide evacuation information.

The system came as a result of the devastating Black Saturday firestorm in 2009 that claimed 173 lives.

The floods are the latest natural disaster to strike Victoria, with 300 residents forced from their homes so far. The floods have also affected local utilities, and several thousand homes have been left without power.

SES incident controller Keith O'Brien told ABC News today that the state emergency services will continue to alert residents in "the most appropriate way".

(Front page image credit: Flood - Road Closed image by Morien Jones, CC2.0)

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