Countywide proposal on November ballot Editor’s note, Aug. 2, 2019 — This story has been updated to correct the annual expenses of financing the upgrades. Okanogan County police, firefighters and EMS have to wait their turn for a free radio repeater to talk to each other or to dispatch. That’s the situation the Okanogan County commissioners […]
emergency services
Do they hear us now?
Local officials press for better emergency communications net By Ann McCreary In the three years since the Carlton Complex Fire burned 420 square miles in the Methow Valley, knocking out power and disrupting most forms of communication for more than a week, Soo Ing-Moody has become a crusader for improved communications in the Methow Valley […]
Emergency alert system strives for balance
At an informational meeting about the Canyon Creek Fire last week, a Carlton-area resident thanked Okanogan County for the alerts sent through its automated system. “It was incredibly helpful — the phone kept ringing till we got the message,” she said.
Liberty Bell incident puts spotlight on emergency response planning
Methow Valley School District staff were already updating an emergency response plan when a frightening and unprecedented situation involving a student erupted in early January at Liberty Bell High School.
The situation was handled by paramedics from Aero Methow Rescue Service, who …
Methow Valley School District forming emergency response committee
The Methow Valley School District is recruiting community members interested in serving on a new committee to work on emergency-response planning. The committee will be part of the district’s new Project Safe and Secure initiative, which will coordinate with school staff, first responders …
Search and rescue teams having busy month
Search and rescue teams have had a busy July responding to calls that have included plucking a stranded young rafter off a tree overhanging the Methow River and evacuating sick and injured people by …
New county notification system provides customized warnings
The county is making wider use of a new mass-notification system that provides customized warnings via phone, cell phone, text message or email about threats and emergencies. When signing up, people can request notifications for up to five locations. For example, someone might request alerts for a home address, work, and addresses of parents, children […]
Letters to the editor: May 20, 2015
Time for a conversation Dear Editor: When I was a kid, we played with cap pistols. And, since I grew up in the Alaskan bush, I was a good shot with a .22 by the time I was 10. We kept loaded guns in the mess hall because my father ran a profitable placer mine. […]
Cut off
By Marcy Stamper
A simple phone call can travel thousands of miles before the phone rings in your friend’s house just a few towns over. The process seems so ordinary that most of us take it for granted — that is, until there’s no dial tone or, worse, you repeatedly dial 911 and can’t get through.
Red Cross action team ready to respond
By Laurelle Walsh
Six Methow Valley residents have trained with the American Red Cross and are the area’s new Twisp-based Disaster Action Team.
Wendy Braden, Sheila Brandenburg, Kay MacCready, Heather Smith, and Renee and John Szenasi just finished Red Cross casework training and Emergency Response Vehicle training in order to …
