HERMISTON – Aside from an occasional glitch, distribution of tone alert radios is going well and on schedule, said a federal official.

Speaking at a citizen’s commission meeting on Thursday night, Eric Richardson with the Federal Emergency Management Agency said about 460 of the emergency radios had been delivered as of Wednesday night. About 15,000 will eventually be distributed to homes and businesses near the Umatilla Chemical Depot.

The radios will emit a piercing tone and emergency instructions during a chemical accident at the depot.

Richardson said small problems have occurred, such as when overzealous distributors accidentally began delivering the radios to homes in northern Umatilla. Unfortunately, the radios weren’t programmed for that area. Sixty-eight radios had to be recovered, he said, adding that the correct radios should be delivered there in about two weeks.

“In most scenarios, it wouldn’t matter, but it was the vendor’s mistake and they will fix it for free,” Richardson said. The radios had to be removed because people living in different areas may receive different instructions during a chemical accident at the depot. Northern Umatilla is in sector B, while the deliverers were distributing radios for sector A, which is west of the Umatilla River.

The radios are being distributed to area homes by locals who know the area. The helpers, clad in lime-green vests, visit homes in the evening and require about 12 minutes to set up the radios and show people how to use them.

Richardson said some people don’t want the radios, claiming an accident will never happen.

“Interestingly enough, those (people) turn out to be your Raytheon and Army folks who are turning down your radios,” he said. Raytheon Demilitarization Co. is the contractor building the depot’s weapons incinerator, which is about 83 percent complete.