Ahead of the 2023 flood and wildfire season, residents in Kamloops, Tk’emlúps te Secwepemc, and the Thompson-Nicola Regional District are being encouraged to sign up for the Voyent Alert! emergency notification system.

That is the emergency notification system used by all three local governments to notify people about emergency updates by text, phone call, email, or through the app itself.

In a joint news release, they note a recent update to the app now allows people to register any property within the City, Tk̓emlúps te Secwépemc, or TNRD boundaries to the same account so they can be notified in case of an emergency.

“We’ve already seen grass fires pop up this year, so emergency preparedness is very top of mind,” Will Beatty, the City’s Emergency Preparedness Manager said, in a news release. “Registering for Voyent Alert! is a simple step residents can take to ensure they get timely updates this season.”

Added Shane Wardrobe, Tk̓emlúps te Secwépemc’s Emergency Planning Coordinator, “the grasslands on Tk̓emlúps IR #1, being our primary populated area, are tinder dry right now and with winds picking up in the afternoon this makes for potential grass fires.”

“The Voyent Alert! tool is an essential part of getting timely notification to community members and I urge everyone to get on board.”

Speaking on NL Newsday, TNRD spokesperson Colton Davies says they hope to have over 20,000 people signed up to the alert system by the end of this year.

“We were at about 2,000 this time two years ago, and now we’re at almost 19,500,” he said.

“We do typically see a bit of a spike this time of year in subscriptions anecdotally just with flood and fire season around the corner. And of course, when emergencies do happen is when we do typically see an even higher number of people come on board.”

Davies says the TNRD used Voyent Alert extensively in 2021 to warn people of both wildfires and floods that year to issue a record-breaking number of evacuation orders and alerts.

“For the TNRD, we only have the jurisdiction to send alerts for our ten electoral areas,” he added. “For the City of Kamloops, within its boundaries, and Tk’emlúps its boundaries and so on. Based on the population in the Kamloops area, it made sense to put out a joint news release since we all have similar goals here.”

And if you’ve already have Voyent Alert set up, Davies says to make sure it is still active on your devices as some phones tend to automatically remove permissions if an app isn’t used for a long period of time.

For more information on Voyent Alert!, go here for the City of Kamloops, here for the TNRD, and here for Tk’emlúps te Secwepemc.