(Stuart) Iowa’s emergency notification system is undergoing an upgrade.
Jeremy Cooper, Adair and Guthrie County Deputy Coordinator, says alert Iowa is making it easier for their residents in Adair and Guthrie Counties to sign up and receive alerts about severe weather and other emergencies with more options and the ability to choose how and what alerts they want to receive.
Cooper says the system will still be able to send out alerts for specific communities.
Alert Iowa has been a statewide emergency notification system that the Adair & Guthrie County EMA has used since 2014 to send alerts to residents. The State of Iowa has changed to a new operating program for Alert Iowa; therefore, if you were signed up for the alert system before today, you will need to sign-up under the new system to continue receiving these alerts. Improvements to the system will enable County officials to communicate emergency information directly to citizens via voice call, text message, email, and social media. The system also now has the capability to translate messages into multiple languages.
Cooper says Smart911 is another new feature with this new alert system. It is a nationwide system that can push your profile information to 9-1-1. You can choose how much or as little information you want to share and can only be viewed by 9-1-1 or Adair & Guthrie County Emergency Management. The Smart911 app notifies travelers or visitors to specific counties; when the app users enter the area associated with an alert, they will instantly receive the notification.
The target date for Adair & Guthrie Counties to have the transition to the upgraded system completed is June 30, 2021.
Cooper says, feel free to contact the Adair and Guthrie County Office for help signing up, or if you signed up for the new service and would like them to remove you from the old system, so you are not receiving multiple messages from both systems.”
Signing up for Alert Iowa is easy and can be done through the county’s web portal, by sending a text, or by downloading the Smart911 app. Residents who are currently signed up to receive alerts from our old system will need to sign up for the new system.
To sign up:
- Create an account on the Adair & Guthrie County web portal at https://www.smart911.com/smart911/ref/reg.action?pa=AGCountiesIowaAlerts
- Text your county name followed by IA to 672-83
- Download the Smart911 app from the Apple or Google Play stores.
To learn more about Alert Iowa in Adair & Guthrie Counties, visit alert.iowa.gov, or additional information on the system is available at www.homelandsecurity.iowa.gov.
This upgrade applies to all counties across the state.
