Could a Hawaii-style false alert happen in the Mid-Columbia?

Mid-Columbia emergency managers cringed when they heard about the false alarm that sent many in Hawaii into a temporary panic.

Tri-City officials would love to promise that such a thing could never happen here.

After all, the Tri-Cities face all the usual natural and man-made disaster threats and some unusual ones too in the form of the commercial nuclear plant north of Richland and the Hanford nuclear reservation.

False alerts can happen. But the local alert system has safeguards that make it unlikely, said Deanna Davis, emergency manager of Benton County Emergency Services. Husband Sean is her Franklin County counterpart.

The emergency services agencies oversee local alerts sent to the media, roadside signs, sirens, telephones and mobile devices.

It also is responsible for sounding the sirens that let the public know that there is an emergency at Hanford or the nuclear power plant and the emergency tone alert radios provided to the closest neighbors the nuclear power plant.

Sirens for nuclear power plant include loud-speaker messages, in which the public would be told whether to evacuate, shelter in place or monitor and prepare.

In 2016, the two counties added the smartphone-friendly CodeRED opt-in alert system when Energy Northwest upgraded the siren system.

Deanna Davis said as much as she would like to assure residents that there will never be a false alarm, humans run the system and there’s no way to completely eliminate human error.

That said, it would be very difficult to send a false alert by accident. And if it happens, Benton and Franklin counties have procedures to recall false alarms that include notifying the media and sending tests, emails and phone calls as well as posting a followup alert about the error.

Davis explains that there are two levels of notification. Both require operators to log in with secure credentials.

CodeRED allows emergency managers to send targeted messages to registered numbers in specific areas to alert them to fires, floods, crime and other dangers in a neighborhood.

CodeRED augments the general alert system, which sends broad alerts to the entire region through radio and other broadcasts.

Separately, operators have access to the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Integrated Public Alert and Warning System or IPAWS. That system can send messages to all wireless devices in a targeted area, whether or not they’ve registered with the system to receive them.

It essentially notifies cell towers to pass messages to all devices in its range.

Davis said it appears IPAWS sent the ballistic missile warning message in Hawaii based on widespread reports that tourists received the message on mobile devices. It wouldn’t occur to most visitors to sign up for the CodeRED-style notices for local emergencies.

To send notifications to all devices, operators log into CodeRED, then IPAWS. Davis said that once the message is ready, IPAWS requires the operator to enter a code and to reaffirm the intent to send a live message.

“It takes a very specific key stroke, a very specific authentication code,” Davis said. “There’s checks and balances.”

Davis said she hopes the traumatizing situation in Hawaii won’t deter Mid-Columbia residents from signing up for CodeRED. The fast-moving fire that scorched 250 acres on Candy Mountain in September is a good example of how targeted, local notifications can save lives.

Davis used CodeRED to send messages to phones registered in the Candy Mountain area. Dozens evacuated. IPAWS would have cast an indiscriminate net over a larger area and was not used.

Emergency managers have been pushing area residents to register with the system. CodeRED is free and private information is not shared or sold.

Benton residents can sign up by visiting bces.wa.gov. Click on the icon and following the instructions. Franklin County residents can start at franklinem.org.

For information, call 509-628-2600 in Benton County and 509-545-3546 in Franklin County.

Reporter Annette Cary contributed to this report.

This story was originally published January 15, 2018 at 6:04 PM with the headline "Could a Hawaii-style false alert happen in the Mid-Columbia?."