Adair-Guthrie County Emergency Management Coordinator Robert Kempf, Tuesday, said upgrades to Iowa’s emergency notification system, Alert Iowa, are making it easier for the residents of Adair & Guthrie Counties to sign up and receive alerts about severe weather and other emergencies with more options and ability choose how and what alerts they want to receive while maintaining updates to their own information to receive these alerts or what information they want to be shared.

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 have changed to a new operating program for Alert Iowa therefore, if you were signed up for the alert system prior to today, then you will need to signup under the new system to continue to receive these alerts. Improvements to the system will enable County officials to better 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.

Kempf says “Alert Iowa is a great tool that allows us to push official, real-time alerts to our residents. These upgrades will not only make it easier for us to notify our residents when emergencies happen or when we need to share important public safety information but will let residents choose the best way for them to receive these alerts.” 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. “With the Smart911 app, we will be able to notify travelers or visitors to our Counties.

When the app users enter the area associated with an alert, they will instantly receive the notification. Although our local 9-1-1 does not have the capability to receive this information from the app at this time, it may be an option added later at the call center. The app can still be used by our residents while they are traveling should they need to call 9-1-1. The target date for Adair & Guthrie Counties to have the transition to the upgraded system completed is June 30, 2021. Please feel free to contact our office if you need help signing up or if you signed up for the new service and want us 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 .