A malfunction with Pierce County’s emergency notification system caused 1,500 people to receive the same text message 30 times Tuesday morning.
The message notified people to report damage from last week’s ice and snow storm to the county’s damage assessment center. The county wants people to report damage so the state can pursue federal aid.
Pierce County Emergency Management is working with Everbridge, the system’s provider in California, to figure out and solve the problem with the Pierce County Alert system, said Sheri Badger, Emergency Management spokeswoman.
Badger described the problem as a “system glitch.” Until it’s resolved, an emergency message could be sent directly by Everbridge if the need arises, Badger said.
About 12 people called and complained to Emergency Management on Tuesday, she said.
“We’ve had complaints from people who pay by the text message,” she said, apologizing for the inconvenience.
Emergency Management plans to talk with Everbridge about reimbursing people who pay per message, Badger said.
It’s not the first time the county has had problems with the 11/2-year-old system. During last week’s storm, some notification messages were not sent properly. And on Monday, when the system first tried to send the damage-report request that went out Tuesday, it wasn’t sent at all.
About 14,000 people have opted to receive these types of messages by email, text or voice message.
About 6,800 email subscribers got the same message only once Tuesday.
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