Now that Arlington Heights police and fire communications cannot be monitored by the media or by neighborhood watch and other safety groups, the Village of Arlington Heights public information efforts show a serious deficiency and lack of effort to keep the public aware in emergencies.
A deluge of rain caused numerous flooding issues that closed businesses and closed roads in the area. Also numerous power failures occurred in neighborhoods.
Some drivers were stranded in vehicles, which required mutual aid help from Prospect Heights firefighter/paramedics.
Arlington Heights official twitter account had no information about the storm. The twitter account showed a disconnect with the reality that was occurring in the village.
Wednesday June 26, 2013 screen shot of the Village of Arlington Heights official twitter account showing the lastest tweet about a free concert on June 21, 2013, and inconsistent public safety alerts — flood watch alert from June 12, 2013, but NO alerts for a flood watch and a flood warning on June 26, 2013.
The latest information tweeted and observed on June 26, 2013 related to a free concert on June 21, 2013.
The official Village of Arlington Heights twitter account also showed inconsistency to a degree of lack of dependability. A Flash Flood Watch was tweeted for June 12, 2012, but the Flash Flood Watch issued for June 26, 2013 was not tweeted. Also the Flash Flood Warning issued at 5:26 a.m. June 26, 2013 was not tweeted.
The Village of Arlington Heights should either keep the official twitter account limited to community relations events or it should do a full-time job of alerting the community regarding public safety issues on its existing account or create a separate public safety account that combines information about police and fire safety activity.
Arlington Heights is a large enough community to handle this task with excellence. Cities, such as Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Portland, Schaumburg and many others already notify their citizens of public safety issues, road closures, power failures, fires, crashes or other major emergencies in their communities.
After decades of using a radio system that was in the clear, Arlington Heights police secured their police radio communications with encrypted technology on June 5, 2013, and the fire department also started using technology on June 5, 2013 that no currently manufactured public safety radio scanners can monitor.
VIDEO: Multiple storm and flooding scenes on the north side of Arlington Heights and Buffalo Grove on Wednesday June 26, 2013.
PLEASE REPORT YOUR FLOODING INCIDENTS, SEVERE WEATHER DAMAGE AND OTHER STORM INCIDENTS USING THE FORM AT THIS WEB ADDRESS …
Arlingtoncardinal.com/submit-severe-weather-report
It is important that you report your flooding incidents so that this can be reported to the Village of Arlington Heights for future reference.
The National Weather Service issued a Flash Flood Warning at 5:26 a.m. Wednesday, June 26, 2013 as heavy thunderstorms were in the process of dropping about 4 inches of rain in the area of Arlington Heights, Buffalo Grove, Palatine, Wheeling and other northwest suburbs.
Stay informed with news from The Cardinal’s Emergencies Behind the Scenes Facebook page — Facebook.com/CardinalEmergencies. Includes links to favorite public safety and emergency rescuers and product manufacturers and safety companies that have facebook pages. Submit your pictures or just stay up-to-date on with fire, rescue, EMS and police photo galleries. Please add your public safety photo to the wall album — go direct to the Arlington Cardinal Emergencies Behind the Scenes photos. For a list of all of The Cardinal Facebook fan pages, go to Arlingtoncardinal.com/about/facebook …
