CARNATION, Wash. — City leaders and citizens in Carnation criticized the City of Seattle's new Tolt Dam warning alarm on Wednesday afternoon and called for an improved system to help the community prepare.
Seattle city leaders told Carnation a "far superior" alarm would be in place starting on Oct. 18, but Carnation Mayor Jim Ribail said the warning system has been inadequate for the city.
The previous Tolt River Dam warning system, designed to warn of a breach in the earthen dam holding back the Tolt reservoir, did not sound three times during tests from late 2020 to early 2021.
City officials said Wednesday there have been six false alarms in Carnation over the last three years.
"The City of Seattle needs to have a better system than the one they just de-commissioned," Ribail said at a press conference Wednesday. "That was the promise made by the City of Seattle and (Seattle Public Utilities). Right now we do not have that system in place. It's inadequate and it's not working to the level that it should be."
The dam, which is 16 miles upstream from Carnation, is owned and operated by the City of Seattle. If the dam fails, it could be devastating for the residents of Carnation.
In the event of a collapse, Ribail said Carnation would be inundated with over 15 feet of water.
"Our tallest building in Carnation would be under 10 feet of water," Ribail said. "The City of Carnation would not be here. The river system would not be here. The impacts it would have on lives and the future of this valley would be devastating."
Kira Avery, executive director of the Sno Valley Senior Center in Carnation, said a false alarm in 2020 happened as the center was preparing to deliver 50 lunches across the area.
"The 2020 false alarm was a wake-up call for us to get better prepared, but we also need to trust the alarm system that is responsible for alerting an entire city about an impending disaster and that's not something we can do right now," Avery said. "The false alarms that have happened have caused confusion and anxiety. We worry that the longer this goes on the alarm will be taken less seriously if an emergency is actually occurring."
Ribail said the community has been "devastated" by the effects of recent false alarms.
"The first time that it went off we had seniors walk into their yard and wait for a wall of water to come down," Ribail said. "They thought they were going to die. We had people in their wheelchairs who just sat there and cried because they thought they were going to die."
Greg Jamiel, who lives across the street from the sirens, said he has trouble hearing the new alarms.
"Unfortunately the new alert system is inaudible in many parts of the city," Jamiel said. "Even for me, living across the street from it, it's far more difficult to hear and understand compared to the previous one. The City of Seattle has overcommitted and underperformed which is unacceptable when the safety of our Carnation community is at stake."
After receiving many complaints from Carnation residents, the City of Seattle shared an update on the Tolt Dam Early Warning System website.
"It's important to note that the siren system is primarily an outdoor warning system and it may not be audible indoors depending on many conditions such as topography, wind direction, and ambient noise like running faucets or televisions," the City of Seattle wrote on the Tolt Dam Early Warning System project website.
Ribail said the City of Carnation started a yearly dam safety evacuation drill with "zero input from Seattle." The drill is held on the last Saturday in September, allowing citizens to walk from their homes to the evacuation site in the case of an emergency.
The problems with the new alert system, Ribail said, need to be fixed immediately.
"Tomorrow," Ribail said. "We've waited three years. It's time for them to step up. I don't know how much more clear I can be about this. It's three years of promises and broken promises and broken promises. The latest broken promise is that we would have a better system than we had that was a 40-year-old system. Right now we have a brand new 'state-of-the-art system' that is a complete failure. It's time to fix it. And it's time to fix it tomorrow."
A representative from Mayor Bruce Harrell's office said Seattle leaders have "a lot of confidence in this new state-of-the-art system."