The City of Steinbach has run the first test of its new 'Alert Now' system. It was established to contact residents by telephone, cell phone or e-mail to notify of them of an impending emergency such as a tornado or chemical spill. Steinbach Emergency Coordinator Dennis Vassart says they ran a full test of the system last Wednesday.

"Our test went pretty well. We sent out to over 4,800 contacts. The majority of them had their message within 15-20 minutes. Some of them it took three or four attempts because it went down the list of contact information we had for them. But we're really quite pleased."

Upon receipt of the message, recipients were asked to press the number one on their phone or text back a 'yes' to confirm they had received it. Vassart notes Steinbach has about 5,000 residences so, with 4,800 contacts, they feel they are close to being able to reach at least one person per household. But he says if they could get everybody in a household, who has a different path of getting informed to sign in, then they would be in great shape.

"So we'd like to stress that we need the citizens to sign up. If there are two in the household and they each have a cell phone, then they should both sign up, that type of thing. And, when you do get a message, whether it's a test message or an actual notification of an emergency, we'd like you to acknowledge receipt of that message."

Vassart says the test also turned up a couple of minor glitches that are now being addressed.