AOL treated emergency email as spam

Apparently the emergency emails perfectly matched the pattern of spam email advertising for Viagra and was treated as spam by the US's largest ISP.

This was a major problem last year when four major storms hit Florida, including, Frances and Jeanne, that swept over Indian River County and dusted it down with winds of more than 100 mph.

More than 4,200 people signed up for the county's e-mail alert service, which offered quick alerts on hurricanes, tornadoes and other weather emergencies.

At the time everyone thought it was brilliant, but then it became clear that not everyone was getting the notifications and were a bit surprised when hurricanes took their roof off.

AOL users are being told to put the county's e-mail account in their computer's address book so their computers know to accept the messages.

More sound and fury here. µ