Loveland, Ohio – On Thursday, March 29 at 11:20 PM, many residents received a phone call from the Hamilton County Emergency Management & Homeland Security Agency. It was a recorded robocall notifying residents that a flood warning had been issued. Problem was, it was supposed to alert residents along the Great Miami River, not the Little Miami. The failure was due to a malfunction in Hamilton County’s mass notification tool according to Ryan McEwan, the Assistant Director of the agency. The National Weather Service in Wilmington issued a Flood Warning for the Great Miami River in western Hamilton County.
In a press release, McEwan said, “Hamilton County Emergency Management & Homeland Security Agency (EMHSA) is working with our mass notification vendor to identify why the malfunction occurred and to ensure it does not occur again.”
On the agency’s Facebook page one resident posed this question:
“I got a call at 11:30 on my land line phone. I didn’t subscribe. Wondering why.”
The agency responded:
“You were alerted of the Flood Warning because our system is set up to call land lines during an emergency that could threaten life safety or when severe weather (like a Tornado Warning or Flood Warning) is issued for your area. Unfortunately, there was a malfunction in the system last night that called more residents than intended. We have since fixed this issue and it should not happen again. We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience.”
Another resident asked this question:
“The phone call at that hour of the night scared me half to death!! I was afraid there was something wrong with one of our children or grandchildren!”
The agency did not respond.
Another resident asked this question:
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