Allamakee County to transition to Alert Iowa Emergency Notification System for weather and other alerts
Allamakee County Emergency Management Coordinator Corey Snitker wants to inform the public about a new Emergency Alert system Allamakee County is migrating to called Alert Iowa. This system will shortly, in early September, be replacing the CodeRED notification system currently used as the alert platform in Allamakee County. Current users of CodeRED will need to sign up for this new system to continue to receive emergency alert notifications.
Alert Iowa is a new multi-purpose emergency alert system that provides county-specific information on weather and non-weather-related alerts for local residents. The system allows County and/or City officials and the National Weather Service to communicate emergency information directly to residents via a voice call, text message and/or email and will feature two alert options: weather and non-weather notifications.
The Weather Emergency Alert options include Severe Thunderstorm, Tornado, Flood and Flash Flood, Winter Storm, Winter Weather, Excessive Heat, Extreme Cold and Wind Chill, and Freeze and Frost Watch and Warning alerts.
Non-Weather-Related Emergency Alert options are associated to each city individually within the county and one for the rural portion of the county also. Signing up allows residents to receive alert notices for just the specific city or rural portion they select. City alert examples include emergency boil alerts, hazardous material spills, shelter-in-place, evacuation or missing person. Rural alert examples would include emergency road closures, hazardous material spills, shelter-in-place, evacuation or missing person.
Like the method of receiving the alert, residents can choose which of the above alerts they would like to receive. Signing up for Allamakee County Alert Iowa is easy and can be done one of any of the following ways:
1) The first way is to create an account in Alert Iowa through a link found on the Allamakee County website at allamakeecounty.iowa.gov, then look under the Departments tab for the Emergency Management page to locate the link. Residents can also create an account and see other participating counties on the State of Iowa Homeland Security and Emergency Management Department (HSEMD) website at alert.iowa.gov.
2) Download the Smart911 app from the Apple or Google Play stores on smartphones.
3) A final option is to text AllamakeeIA to 672-83. This option has limits, though, as those who sign up will only receive severe weather notifications for the county (which should be Tornado, Severe Thunderstorm and Flood).
When using the Allamakee County Alert Iowa Sign-up Page, users will create an account and from there they will be asked to provide basic information such as address, phone number, etc. and then be able to choose their alert options, how to receive the alerts, and provide other more detailed information as they want.
