Community content submitted by KUPR
Imagine a wildfire on the mountain this summer, wind-driven and rapidly moving toward the village and surrounding neighborhoods. In this scenario, PNM has turned off power and most of eastern Placitas is on the only road out – gridlocked on NM165, experiencing limited communication with the outside world. As the Texas floods showed us last year, communication saves lives. Placitas has no sirens, spotty cell service, no reverse 911 and a mass notification system for Sandoval County that is currently in transition to SCAN (Sandoval County Alert & Notification).
All of Placitas is designated as high risk for wildfire, and there are other risks like flash floods and pipeline accidents. Your safety depends on a robust, resilient, and redundant communications infrastructure; state and local government and a local community radio station working together to ensure that residents can receive timely, life-saving information no matter where they live. No one system is adequate…