Earlier this week, Dare County began implementing a new emergency alert system, which allows residents, visitors, and nonresident property owners to receive text, email, or a phone call in the event an emergency situation develops that could impact them. This is the first step in an effort to improve emergency and day-to-day alerting and notification capabilities by Dare County and the Towns of Duck, Southern Shores, Kitty Hawk, Kill Devil Hills, Nags Head and Manteo.
Prior to the new system, Dare County Emergency Management provided email alerts to users who subscribed to receive alerts from the Dare County website. Previously registered email addresses were imported into the new system and users received an email earlier this week with information on the new system and instructions for completing their profile.
New users can sign up at www.darenc.com/emergencyalerts. Signing up is quick, easy and secure. Users pick how time-sensitive messages are received and which devices, phone numbers and email addresses notifications are sent to. Emergency Management officials also have the ability to send notifications to users based on address. Including a home address, work address, and the addresses of any additional properties owned in Dare County, will ensure users receive notification of situations that may impact those specific areas.
Examples of emergency notifications that may be sent include: mandatory evacuation orders, reentry information, hurricane advisories and bulletins, emergencies disrupting vehicular/pedestrian traffic, and countywide post-disaster information.
In the future, emergency alerting will be expanded to all Towns and once approval is received from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), County and Town public safety officials will be able to use the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS). IPAWS providesan effective way to alert and warn the public about serious emergencies using Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) which are delivered to mobile devices. With emergency alerting implemented Dare County plans to use the system to improve day to day service notifications.
For more information about the emergency alert system or to sign up visit www.darenc.com/emergencyalerts.
