On Saturday when a three-year-old child wandered away from his home near Sterling, several agencies mobilized for the search. But officials also enlisted the help of area residents through its"Rapid Notify" system.
Rapid Notify is a company that the Kenai Peninsula Borough contracts with that uses an automated system which can make hundreds or even thousands of phone calls in a matter of minutes, dispensing vital information in the event of a natural disaster, or in this case, a missing child.
Dan Nelson, program manager for the Kenai Peninsula Borough's Office of Emergency Management, says the system has been used in the past to issues notices of potential evacuations or actual evacuation orders, as has been the case of wildfire and floods in the past few years.
He said under those circumstance, there could be several messages sent per day. But on average, he says the Rapid Notify is activated only about five times per year.
"Often it will be used for perhaps, a missing person, such as a child or a vulnerable adult to get information out to a specific neighborhood to help law enforcement, search-and-rescue be on the look-out."
And it's that kind of fine-tuning of notification areas that is one of the most powerful aspects of the Rapid Notify system. Tammy Goggia is the manager of the Public Safety Communications Center in Soldotna.
"When we are creating messages that go out to the public, we can create them in a; variety of ways," she said. "We can use a map and draw a circle, or some other geographical area that we want to notify, and it will call just those people."
She said that during Saturday's missing child incident, over 20,000 phone numbers were in the queue to be dialed, but only a fraction were, as the toddler was found soon after calls started going out. In that case, Goggia simply cancelled the automated process.
One side effect that both Nelson and Goggia would like the public's help in alleviating is the number of return calls to the 9-1-1 center the Rapid Notify system generates. Goggia says all pertinent information should be in the call residents receive.
"Please do not call 911 when you get these messages. We're trying to give you information outreach and we'll update you as soon as possible," she said. "Unless you have, of course, relevant information or you have another emergency yourself that you need to report."
All land-line phone numbers, both listed and unlisted, are already in the Rapid Notify system, but mobile phone numbers are not. Residents need to opt-in through a simple online form in order to get notifications on their cell phones.