Receiving Alerts
We use timely and reliable systems to alert you and your family in the event of natural or man-made disasters. This page describes different warning alerts you can receive and the types of devices that receive the alerts.
Salt Lake City Emergency Management uses social media for precautionary, advisory and warnings. Our channels are listed below:
@bereadyslc on Facebook and for Facebook Alerts
@bereadyslc on Twitter
@bereadyslc Instagram
WEAS and EAS ALERTS
Salt Lake County Alert Registry
Salt Lake Valley Emergency Communications Center (VECC) has instituted a regional Emergency Notification System (ENS) for the citizens of Salt Lake County. VECC, a consolidated 9-1-1/Police/ Fire Dispatch Center (serving all communities in Salt Lake County except Salt Lake City and Sandy City), along with Salt Lake City 9-1-1 (SLC911- serving Salt Lake City and Sandy City) have agreed to share the system, thus making the service available to all residents and businesses within Salt Lake County. This ENS provides a means to send telephone, SMS text, and email notifications regarding emergency situations or critical public safety information to residents and businesses within Salt Lake County. The notifications are directed towards those that are impacted by, or in danger of being impacted by, an emergency or disaster.
This system delivers information and instructions regarding emergencies, disasters, or critical information under the authority of the responding public safety agencies, emergency management, and/or municipal administrations. It will be used to notify those homes and businesses at risk within the affected area and will provide information regarding the incident and/or actions to take (such as evacuation). Additional necessary instructions or information, (such as shelter locations), may also be provided. As allowed by statute, the system utilizes the region’s 9-1-1 database, provided by the local telephone company, and thus is able to contact land-line telephones whether listed or unlisted. It is TTY/TDD capable.
Open the registration page by pressing the picture below:
What is IPAWS?
Integrated Public Alert Warning System
During an emergency, alert and warning officials need to provide the public with life-saving information quickly. IPAWS is a modernization and integration of the nation’s alert and warning infrastructure and will save time when time matters most, protecting life and property.
Federal, state, local, tribal, and territorial alerting authorities can use IPAWS and integrate local systems that use Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) standards with the IPAWS infrastructure. IPAWS provides public safety officials with an effective way to alert and warn the public about serious emergencies using the Emergency Alert System (EAS), Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Weather Radio, and other public alerting systems from a single interface.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), in coordination with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), conducts an annual nationwide test of the Emergency Alert System (EAS) and Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA).
The WEA is a test message sent to cell phones that are connected to wireless carriers participating in WEA. Depending on what type of cell phone you have, you will either receive a long or short message. If you have a smart phone, the message you will receive will be up to 360 characters total. If you do not have a smart phone, your message will have up to 90 characters total.
The EAS is a national public warning system that provides the President with the communication capability to address the nation during a national emergency. The test is made available to EAS participants (i.e., radio and television broadcasters, cable systems, satellite radio and television providers, and wireline video providers) and is scheduled to last approximately one minute. The test message will be similar to regular monthly EAS test messages with which the public is familiar.