GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – We’re learning more about an alert that went to cellphones countywide Tuesday night, despite being targeted to only a few homes in Green Bay.
The alert was to notify residents of a gas leak.
The leak happened on the 500 block of Edgewood Drive, located on the city’s east side between I-43 and Main Street.
The alert was sent just before 5:20 p.m.
Brown County Emergency Management Director, Lauri Maki says there are several reasons that could have led to this happening.
“It’s because of the cell phone towers not being updated all the way to 5G, people having older phones that aren’t supported the same way, different carriers operate their networks differently.”
Brown County sent two alerts — one being the initial evacuation notice, the next being a cancellation.
The alert did not affect the way police and fire departments responded to the scene.
“We just know the message was sent, and that’s what we want; that is our goal. In this scenario, a lot of people got it that didn’t need it. We’ll fix that; we’ll clean that up,” says Cmdr. Kevin Warych of the Green Bay Police Dept.
Warych says the department does not solely rely on the alert system.
“Officers will go door to door, knocking on doors because what happens if someone doesn’t look at their cell phone or doesn’t get to their phone or doesn’t have a cell phone and they only have a landline?”
When asked why the alert didn’t include a source or even that the neighborhood was in Green Bay, Maki responded, “Normally, we would put the location in there. Because of the character limitations, it was removed, especially since it was intended for such a small area.”
Emergency Management has come up with a possible solution.
“What we are planning going forward is potentially setting up some type of link where we can update a webpage and send the link out so that people can have more information,” says Maki.
“The issue with the alert — more is better in that scenario and we’ll deal with people 10 miles away knowing that alert,” says Warych.
Police say they believe the source of the gas leak to be an unlit gas stove.
The leak was coming from a house, owned by a 63-year-old man.
The home had been condemned due to unsafe living conditions.
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