Seattle Public Utilities Message to the Residents of Carnation

To the Residents of Carnation,

Seattle Public Utilities looks forward to attending the City of Carnation’s community meeting on Monday, August 3, when we will share what we know about the Tolt Dam Warning System’s false alarm that sounded for almost 40 minutes on Tuesday.

We sincerely apologize for the confusion and fear caused by the false alarm. We will address your concerns and share with you what information we have as to what happened.

On Tuesday, when we determined within a few minutes that there was no breach of the Tolt Dam, staff attempted to disable the alarm but the computer system would not allow it. It took a few tries before the alarm stopped sounding. 

We have heard from many of you in the community, upset and frustrated by what you experienced. 

At the meeting, you will hear from us about the steps we are taking to prevent something like this from happening again. We will also talk about how we are working with our partner agencies like the City of Carnation to improve communications.

Your safety and wellbeing are of the highest priority to us. Dam safety monitoring was never interrupted during the incident and we continue to monitor the dam 24/7, using technology such as cameras and sensors installed along the Tolt Dam.

Thank you for your time and we look forward to seeing you on Monday.

Sincerely,

Seattle Public Utilities