Gatlinburg, Sevier County review alert systems

Feb. 27--Officials in the scenic Gatlinburg area are reviewing upgrades to the public warning systems after questions arose about residents and visitors receiving no alert of an approaching firestorm.

High winds on Nov. 28, 2016, drove a five-day-old wildfire out of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and into Gatlinburg and the surrounding area, but public safety officials made few attempts to warn the 14,000 residents and visitors who fled the flames.

Gatlinburg Fire Chief Greg Miller said a fire-damaged siren and public address system downtown will be replaced with a high-technology option that provides multiple layers of communication. The 20-year-old siren system consisted of four speakers to warn downtown residents of a flood.

"The system to be installed has multiple redundancies for activation, as well as multiple methods of mass notifications," the chief said.

"The system will integrate with the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System, the National Weather Service, cellphones, social media and an AM radio frequency."

Gatlinburg authorities, however, have offered few other details about the system.

Sevier County spokesman Perrin Anderson, meanwhile, said officials are discussing an upgrade to the county's CodeRED alert notification system. Residents of Sevier County had registered for alerts via emails, landline calls or cellphone texts using the CodeRED system. The system has been in use since 2011.

But none of those registered residents were alerted when flames erupted across Gatlinburg, Sevier County and Pigeon Forge, leaving 14 people dead. Officials chose not to activate the warning system, Anderson said.

Evacuees, the majority of which were visitors, fled resorts, rental cabins, apartment complexes and homes on roads not designated as evacuation routes with little guidance from law enforcement officers.

In addition to the deaths, wind-driven flames swept into Gatlinburg shortly before 6 p.m., damaging or destroying more than 2,400 residential and commercial structures. The latest figures available from state authorities noted more than $911 million in insurance claims had been filed.

No estimates have been offered on the loss of property that was not insured or underinsured.

Miller, as incident commander of the disaster, at 8:30 p.m. ordered the mandatory evacuation of Gatlinburg. The chief at 6:30 p.m. had issued his third mutual aid request to other fire departments seeking personnel and equipment to battle flames whipped by winds that gusted up to 87 mph. Miller's first request at noon was countywide. His second plea for aid at 2:30 p.m. was regional. The last one was for fire departments across the state to provide help.

No emergency officials from Gatlinburg, Sevier County, the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency or Sevier County Emergency Management Agency used Twitter or Facebook to share information about the fire danger or evacuations.

Throughout the day and night, emergency workers conveyed voluntary or mandatory evacuation messages to specific communities by going door to door.

Miller at 8:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. ordered activation of the city's downtown siren system. Authorities had to negotiate the old technology to allow a new message to be delivered manually over the speakers.

The chief said Gatlinburg officials are in the process of replacing the old system with one that will deliver alerts using an AM radio frequency, IPAWS, various social media, cellphones and the National Weather Service's Emergency Alert System.

The IPAWS program was introduced by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The program targets every cellphone in a geographic area for a special ringtone and vibration before delivering a text message of up to 90 characters. Cellphone users don't register for the alerts; the IPAWS program seeks the phones through cell towers.

Gatlinburg officials have not responded to questions seeking details about the new alert system. Miller said there will be multiple ways to activate the system, but he did not elaborate. Queries about the costs, vendor, how the alert options were selected and when the system will be operational have gone unanswered.

Miller, at 8:30 on the night of the fire, asked TEMA in Nashville to issue an evacuation order using the IPAWS program. Nashville officials formulated a message and called Miller to confirm the wording of the alert. But by then, fire had disrupted electrical, internet and cellphone services at the emergency operations center established in the main Gatlinburg fire hall.

Without a confirmation from Miller about the message to broadcast with IPAWS, officials with TEMA didn't sent the alert.

With the loss of communications and fires moving eastward along East Parkway toward the fire hall, Miller moved the emergency operations center. At 10 p.m., officials moved the operation about three miles east to the Gatlinburg Community Center at 156 Proffitt Road.

The decision by TEMA officials to not issue the Miller's evacuation order also deprived thousands of Sevier County residents of an alert.

Sevier County pays for the CodeRED service, which is used by about 3,000 state and local governments nationwide.

Anderson said the CodeRED program serves as the county's reverse 911 system. The 911 center doesn't have access to the program, but each governmental unit in the county does, including SCEMA.

Sevier County's subscription to the service, however, is the basic program. An enhanced program, with additional costs, would allow county officials to issue an IPAWS alert on its own. Nineteen agencies, cities and counties across Tennessee, including Knox County, can issue an IPAWS alert without going through TEMA.

Since the wildfire disaster, Anderson said Sevier County officials are considering an upgrade to the CodeRED subscription that enables direct access to the IPAWS program.

Sevier County officials' decision to bypass the CodeRED service in favor of the IPAWS program had consequences for both residents and visitors to the area.

Any residents who didn't have cellphones and relied only on a traditional landline would not have gotten the IPAWS notification, even if TEMA had sent the evacuation message. CodeRED would send a voice message to residents registered for the service.

In addition, any cellphone users who had downloaded the free CodeRED app would have been notified of a Sevier County evacuation. The CodeRED service allows cellphone users to get emergency alerts within 20 miles of their location anywhere in the nation.

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