1. United States
2. Mich.
3. Letter

Good morning, I’m writing today to express concern about using the IPAWS WEA system to send out a 6am alert about a building fire that was 10+ miles away from my house. While I’m sympathetic to the people injured and possibly deceased from the fire, it was an inappropriate use of the system. I expect this to be used for things that need immediate action such as sheltering in place or evacuation. Sending too many of these alerts such as the thunderstorm warning from a few weeks ago will make people opt out of these alerts and in the future lives may be lost because of it. Please consider re-training all of the public safety staff who have access to this system in Wayne County to ensure that they understand the gravity of misusing emergency notification systems. Again, I know children were hurt in this incident and it’s horrific. It just doesn’t do to potentially create mass panic over something like this. The local SMS notification system should have been used instead. Thank you for your consideration in this matter.