Centre County has a new emergency notification system. How to sign up for alerts

Centre County has a new mass notification system for emergencies, and officials offered a reminder to residents this week to sign up to receive alerts.

ALERTCentre, the new program provided by Morotola company Rave Mobile Safety, was officially implemented through a soft rollout on Jan. 1. The service was selected by Centre County Emergency Management for its speed, reliability and accuracy, according to a press release. It has replaced the county’s old program, CodeRED.

The program is capable of making phone calls, sending texts and emails and posting to social media channels to better inform and prepare residents for emergencies.

“(Centre County Emergency Management) anticipates using the system to notify residents of missing people, floods, evacuations, shelter in place, broadcast wanted fugitives, active violence incidents and any other life threatening, critical emergencies,” the release reads.

ALERTCentre works by addressing the area in which an event occurs — an alert can be targeted for the entire county, a municipality or a radius/zone around the event. If a resident lives within the targeted area and is signed up for the program, they will receive an alert.

Enrolling for the program is free and voluntary, with the option to opt out anytime. All personal information collected and stored by the app is private, and will not be distributed to any other party.

To enroll in the program, visit Centre County 911’s enrollment page at www.smart911.com/smart911/ref/reg.action?pa=centrecountypa.

On the enrollment page, there are options to receive the alerts via text, phone call, email or all three, and multiple family members can be enrolled too, as long as they live in the same household.

If you previously signed up for the CodeRED system, Centre County Emergency Management said you should create an updated profile in the new system.