News

Huntington – Cabell County’s Office of Emergency Services directed a mock disaster drill on October 23, one of the first of its kind in the area.

In the drill, 150 people will act as patients, complaining of chemical respiratory problems and eye irritations caused by a leak of hydrochloric acid caused by a supposed leak from a tanker truck struck by a passenger vehicle at a location in Huntington. The drill was specifically used to test W.A.R.N., which calls residents by phone and provides information in case of emergencies. Police, fire, ambulance, transportation and local health agencies from throughout Cabell County participated. The drill was determined successful.

W.A.R.N. was purchased by Cabell County in July, 2008 and is used for public notification. The company’s headquarters are in Gallatin, TN with a division located in Charleston, WV.

Parkersburg – Wood County commissioners authorized Emergency Services Director, Ed Hupp, to select W.A.R.N. (Wide Area Rapid Notification) after reviewing proposals from several other mass notification companies.

Wood County did not renew its contract with Community Alert Network (C.A.N.) about a year ago after several attempts to activate the notification system for a test alert failed.

W.A.R.N. is already in place in 15 counties in West Virginia and is on a state contract bid.

Hupp said the other proposals received were significantly higher in cost and were out-of-state firms. (W.A.R.N. has a significant presence in Charleston, WV where one of its sales and customer support divisions is located.)

“I do think this is an important tool for emergency services to have here and it’s probably been too long that we haven’t had something in place,” Commissioner Rick Modesitt said.

Officials noted the phone numbers for the emergency alert network are provided by local phone companies so anyone with a cell phone would have to voluntarily register their cell phone number iff they want to be notified through the W.A.R.N. system.