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Effects of the Incorrect
Island Names |
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| Emergency and
rescue: Unless the rescue personnel knows the real
Ryer Island location, they may use Google or other online map
service to go to
"Ryer Island" and be sent to the wrong one. It happens!
It also does not help that Google Maps currently labels the REAL
Ryer Island as "Tyler Island". Click on maps below:
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Example 1: Two years ago a group from a governmental agency wanted to do a "practice run" to test and train their new personnel how to respond to an environmental emergency. The day also served as a training session for the marina/resort staff who participated in the practice run. On the scheduled day, the captain leading the practice run called in an "emergency" about 7:30 a.m. to the Rio Vista office and told the new recruits the "emergency" was off Ryer Island. He gave the GPS coordinates rather than a name for the marina, as it was part of the test-use of GPS. However, the new guys in training instead used a map probably from their office computer, and found "Ryer Island" to be in the Suisun Bay area, so they went there instead. Two hours later, as we all waited for the "emergency response team" to arrive by boat, (which should have only taken 15 minutes from Rio Vista) the crew arrived. They explained they had gone to the "wrong island". They had used the name instead of the GPS coordinates. Lesson One learned. Had they asked the river or slough name when the "emergency" was called in, they might have figured out the conflict by looking at a map. Lesson Two learned. (Note: Google lists the REAL Ryer Island as "Tyler Island" and only the Ryer Island in Suisun Bay is shown if you Google Maps the name, so its understandable to make the mistake!) |
| Effects on
residents and owners of Ryer Island homes, farms and businesses:
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Example
2: A family from the North Bay area had reservations for a waterfront RV site at Snug Harbor Resort, a small peninsula off the REAL Ryer Island. Instead of using the map provided with their reservation, they had printed out a map from Google. They were traveling in their beautiful new 40' Motorhome and used the Hwy. 80 to Hwy. 12 East roads. Then they took the county roads towards Birds Landing and were wandering in the Montezuma Hills. They came back to Hwy 12 and used their cell phone to angrily call the resort office. They had been told there is a bridge onto Ryer Island, so they were frustrated because they said could see the Ryer Island on their map from the hills, but clearly there was no bridge to Ryer Island! Resort staff explained that yes, there are two ferries and a bridge to the REAL Ryer Island, but the driver was apparently using a map showing the wrong Ryer Island. About 45 minutes later some very unhappy campers arrived at the resort. They had wasted 4 hours and a huge amount of gas following the Google map in their hand. (Note: resort provides correct directions and links to maps when confirming reservations, and advises all registered customers to use resort directions. GPS services have been notified and some have made corrections, but not Google)
Example 3:
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