The Alertable public alerting service has seen a surge of over 300% in new signups and traffic this week due to the mass shooting that took place in Nova Scotia. This nationally available public alert system is relied upon by hundreds of thousands of Canadians to warn them about impending threats like tornados, fires, floods, and local emergencies. Alertable saw similar traffic spikes after delivering alerts for past events like the 2016 wildfires in Fort McMurray and numerous wildfires since, the 2018/2019 Ottawa floods and many other natural and human-caused severe events.
According to Jacob Westfall, with Public Emergency Alerting Services Inc (PEASI), the developers of Alertable, there is a continuing trend of Canadians looking to mobile devices and new technology to deliver faster information during an emergency. Mobile apps, websites, social media, smart speakers, and popular text message services are quickly becoming crucial methods of communicating life-saving information.
Alertable is fully integrated with Canada’s national Alert Ready system and is capable of sending and receiving wireless text alerts that can limit and prevent further tragedy during life-threatening events. PEASI has reached out to the RCMP to offer the use of its Alertable national platform and its ability to quickly alert the public during future emergencies.