Arlington County has a new system for announcing emergency alerts for residents, and those who are already signed up for Arlington Alerts are being encouraged to sign up for the new platform.
The new system will be live on June 25, as part of the region-wide Capitalert.gov system.
Users can determine how they receive an alert, such as via text message, email, cell phone, land line, instant message or fax, according to Arlington Office of Emergency Management spokesman John Crawford.
Users can also choose times of the day to block messages, and choose which alerts they receive. In addition, Crawford said, if a user works in Washington but lives in Arlington, they can enter multiple zip codes from which to receive alerts. They can also choose when they want to receive alerts and whether to put alerts into “sleep mode” at night.
“It’s important that we keep our residents and visitors informed, but we also want to give them a say in what information they receive and when,” Office of Emergency Management Director Jack Brown said in a press release. “The new and improved Arlington Alert System is the perfect solution for that.”
The new alert system is called Everbridge and it replaces the previous Roam Secure Alert Network, which the county had used since 2004. That system didn’t allow users to customize their alerts, according to the county.
Existing Arlington Alert subscribers will receive alerts under the old system, according to Crawford.