PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Portland officials say a computerized system to tell residents about emergencies by phone, text or email has failed a citywide test, contacting less than 1 percent of the 317,000 people on its lists.
City Emergency Management spokesman Randy Neves said only 2,100 people received alerts by 2 p.m. Thursday, three hours after the test began. All are city employees whose contact information was stored on a city database and whose last names began with A, B or C.
He tells The Oregonian (http://is.gd/RGwOkI ) that the system did not load the remaining names and did not contact anyone outside of the city employee database.
Agency director Carmen Merlo says the city will re-evaluate its contract with its vendor First Call if the vendor can’t fix the problems.
First Call President Matthew Teague says Portland’s system was “built from scratch” to meet city requirements. He says Thursday’s problems are being addressed.
