The reverse 911 calls only went out to the homes within the "blast area". Even though they sent it twice, the paper was complaining about the lack of notification.

We didn't have the manpower to go door to door (we had just set up a perimeter to keep out non-locals) but SAR started going door to door. Later, I found out the number of homes was much more than 100 (stupid news agencies, can't get an accurate story!) so it just outstripped the available manpower.

I get emails on my blackberry and it makes a nice chirp real time when I get one. My emergency email notification is usually weather related but it's had a few nice local events on it. I've signed up with mine at: emergencyemail.org. As has been said, it's certainly imperfect. But I never miss a storm!