False Nuclear Alert Told Monroe County to Evacuate — There Was No Emergency at Fermi II
Residents in Monroe County woke up Thursday morning to an emergency alert telling some of them to evacuate and others to shelter in place around the Fermi II Nuclear Power Plant in Newport, Michigan. There was no emergency.
The message went out accidentally to opt-in subscribers of the Monroe County Everbridge alert system, reaching residents in Monroe and Wayne counties. Michigan State Police Lt. Rene Gonzalez announced at 11:07 a.m. Thursday that the message had been retracted.
“This is part of a drill. THERE IS NO EMERGENCY at Fermi II,” Gonzalez said, according to The Monroe News.
Fermi II sits in Newport, Monroe County — about 30 miles from Toledo. Many Toledo-area residents live, work, and commute in the plant’s emergency planning zone, and the false alert spread quickly across the region Thursday morning.
It was not immediately clear how the drill message was sent to the public alert system instead of staying inside the exercise. Officials said further information would be released later in the day.
The false alarm was also noted in 13abc’s rundown of the day’s news. ToledoBuzz will update this story as officials explain what went wrong.
Image: Wikimedia Commons
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