Annual drill shines light on emergency preparedness  

NANAIMO — Drop, cover, and hold!

Many workplaces, schools, and organized group settings are taking part in the annual Great BC Shakeout drill, featuring alerts sent out to many television and radio stations on Thursday, Oct. 15 at 10:15 a.m.

In addition, local governments, including the City of Nanaimo, are sending direct notifications to subscribers via cell/landlines, email or app notification at the time of the drill through the widely subscribed Voyent Alert! system.

“Voyent Alert! allows the City to send notifications ranging from a single city block to the entire community. Residents can register multiple locations and, if they enable GPS-based notifications, receive alerts based on their current location. GPS information is only used to deliver alerts and is not stored by the system,” noted a City of Nanaimo news release.