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Residents need to sign up for new weather alert system
[June 25, 2012]

Residents need to sign up for new weather alert system


Jun 25, 2012 (Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- WATERLOO, Iowa -- Black Hawk County residents will need to sign up for a new weather and emergency alert system.

The Black Hawk County Emergency Management Commission ended its contract with CodeRED and will start a new alert system by Everbridge beginning July 1. Contact information will not carry over and will need to be updated by residents.

Mike Tompkins, assistant coordinator for Black Hawk County Emergency Management, said the new system is more robust than CodeRED while also less expensive. The agency paid about $46,000 annually for CodeRED, but will pay $36,000 for Everbridge.



The CodeRED system allowed a certain number of minutes of usage, while the new system has unlimited minutes. Those unlimited minutes allow the offerings to be expanded. Now Black Hawk County governmental agencies can put out alerts for a wide variety of notices, including power outages, water issues, health notices, crime and road maintenance. Users choose which types of notices they wish to receive.

The users also choose how to receive the notices, whether through home phone, mobile phone, fax, pager, text or TDD.


Residents can subscribe to the new alert system at www.co.black-hawk.ia.us or www.bhciaema.com. Residents that don't have access to a computer may sign up by telephone by calling the Emergency Management office at 291-4373, between 9 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Users must sign up separately for weather alerts and emergency alerts, although those who use a land line phone will already have that number in the database automatically.

___ (c)2012 Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier (Waterloo, Iowa) Visit Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier (Waterloo, Iowa) at www.wcfcourier.com Distributed by MCT Information Services

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