Updated 11/18/2008 08:21 PM
Storms outpaced Johnston Co. alerts
JOHNSTON COUNTY – Johnston County officials said this Saturday's dangerous storms were simply too fast for their emergency reverse 911 call system, meant to call residents to alert them of danger.
Some Johnston County residents would have received a call at 3 a.m. Saturday to alert them about the approaching storm, which spawned damaging tornadoes. But although Johnston County emergency services initiated the system, it wasn't long before they stopped making the calls.
The reverse 911 call system uses a Web-based notification service called Rapid Notify, which maps out and calls residents on their land lines. The system will call up to three times if there is no answer. The whole process could take up to 30 minutes.
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Although the Rapid Notify system was set to call about 30,000 people, officials stopped it after it contacted about 5,400.
“The storm was moving so fast that they decided to stop it because it was, actually the storm had already hit some of the areas that they were calling,” Kim Robertson, the Johnston County emergency services director, said.
Residents never received calls in the Scott Road area of Kenly, N.C., where 60-year-old Marilyn Gomez was killed.
“It would have been good to have known, so we could have probably taken cover a little better,” Susie Hooks, a storm victim, said.
But some neighbors say they're not sure a phone call would have made any difference. And Johnston County officials agree.
“This system is a perfect system to use if you know about something like there's a water break or if you have a hurricane-type situation where you have more time,” Robertson said. “But when you're dealing with severe weather such as a thunderstorm or tornadoes, it is just so hard because you don't know what areas it's going to be hit.”
Although the Rapid Notify system wasn't ideal for Saturday's situation, officials said they were doing what they could to help alert residents.
For now, storm victims are just trying to move forward.
“I've always been told if God bring you into it, he'll bring you through it,” Hooks said.
Because it is difficult to prepare for tornadoes, Johnston County officials suggest that homeowners buy weather radios to prepare for any type of bad weather.