Alert Iowa is the State of Iowa’s official emergency notification system. Through Alert Iowa, state and local officials are able to utilize a single, statewide notification system that provides local control of how and when to disseminate emergency and public safety messages to residents. Learn if your county is participating and sign up now to receive free alerts via text message, email, and/or voice message.
You can sign up for Alert Iowa through text opt-in, through an online opt-in page, or by downloading the Smart911 App.
Availability may vary by county, but features include:
Sign up to receive alerts in your county. Citizens can sign up using three different processes.
Create a profile through your county’s website opt-in page. Sign up for the alerts you want to receive through your county’s web page.
Download the Smart911 app and create a customized profile. Receive targeted community and weather alerts. Download the Smart911 app for free and opt-in to plan ahead for emergencies.
Send a text message to opt-in. This is the quickest way to sign up. Send a text message to 672-83 with your County Name followed by IA. Example: FremontIA
The Iowa county map below shows the counties that have signed up to join the Alert Iowa system. Citizens will be able to sign up to receive alerts on the county’s registration page. If you choose, you may sign up to receive alerts in multiple counties.
Is your county not participating in the State Alert system? You can still receive targeted weather alerts and community alerts across the State through the Smart911 App!
Sign up for alerts in participating counties listed below.
* Denotes counties that are not currently part of the Alert Iowa network.
When emergencies happen, be the first to know. Your County will use Alert Iowa to send official, real-time alerts to the public with information about potentially life-saving actions they may need to take to keep themselves and their families safe. By signing up for Alert Iowa you are taking a large step toward improving your personal safety.
The majority of Iowa counties have opted to participate in Alert Iowa. To find out if your county is one of the 92 counties participating, check the county listing.
Alert Iowa is available to anyone who lives, works, travels through, or visits Iowa. The address can be your home location, work location, or any other location you care about.
You can sign up online through a web opt-in page for each county, visit alert.iowa.gov, send a text to 672-83 with COUNTYNAMEIA (example- BLACKHAWKIA), or download the Smart911 App.
You can visit your local library to sign up online for Alert Iowa. If you have a phone you can text opt-in, on smartphones you can download the Smart911 App.
Yes. If you frequently travel over county boundaries, you can opt-in to each through their opt-in page. Downloading the Smart911 App also allows you to receive alerts based off of your phones GPS coordinates.
When an emergency occurs that meets the criteria for sending out an alert to the public, the county will gather the necessary information and push out an alert to the affected area. Alerts can be sent out county wide or to a specific area.
This service is provided by Alert Iowa at no cost to the public; however, message and data rates may apply depending on your provider and phone services.
While Alert Iowa is an excellent system, we cannot guarantee that you will receive notification in all cases. Disasters and emergencies are chaotic and unpredictable, and notification is dependent on external providers such as your wireless carrier or email delivery service outside the alert originators control.
Alert Iowa will use several means of communications to try to ensure that should any one communications method, technology, or delivery option be unavailable to reach residents, other methods will be used to improve the likelihood that citizens will see the message. You should sign up to receive multiple modes of contact, including voice, text, and email. Text messages are more likely to get through to you if lines are busy due to an emergency. Downloading Smart911 also provides another mode of communication and alerting.
Emergency alerts are sent 24/7 when there is an immediate threat to life and/or property. In addition to emergency alerts, you can also choose to receive customizable community notifications. These include notifications about:
Severe Weather Alerts
Community Alerts
Special Event Information
Voice messages provide a dial-back number to replay an alert message. Depending on who sent the alert and the type, it may or may not allow for you to reply to it. It is important to listen to or read the full message for any important contact information that pertains to that message.
Once you have signed up and confirmed your contact information within the system, you will begin receiving alerts.
Follow the below steps to change your Alert Iowa preferences (for example, to reduce the number of messages of a certain type, or to change the contacts used for each kind of message):
Go to alert.iowa.gov and select the county you are registered in.
Login using your Alert Iowa username and password (If you’ve forgotten these, follow the instructions on the page under “Forgot Username or Password?”)
Once signed in, click the ‘Preferences’ tab at the top
Under ‘Notification Preferences’, you can make changes to both the phone numbers and email addresses on which you want to receive Alerts powered by Smart911 messages by clicking or unclicking the checkboxes
You can also choose what alerts you want to receive and the method you wish to receive them by (text, voice, email)
For example, if you wish to turn off all messages regarding Transportation Disruptions, simply uncheck the box to the left of “Transportation Disruption”
If you wish instead only to receive emails for Transportation Disruption notifications, instead uncheck the “Text” and / or “Voice” choices, so that only “Email” remains checked
The frequency for which you receive alerts depends on the addresses you provide and the types of alerts you select to receive, as well as the frequency of actual emergencies. Emergency alerts will only be sent when there is an immediate threat to life and/or property.
Community notifications will be sent when the criteria for sending an alert is met. This system is not intended to bombard you with information. Alerts will only be sent to you about the information you select to receive.
To change your alert settings, login to your corresponding County account on this page or through or smart911.com and edit your preferences.
If a call completes and is sent to your answering machine or voice mail system, a message is left. If a phone call is not answered or busy, the system redials your number several times.
No, your information is private and will not be used or distributed in any manner. The information that you provide is exempt from public disclosure and will be used for emergency purposes only.
Personal information provided to Alert Iowa is private and only used to notify you for official communications and to support emergency services. Your information is not used for marketing purposes and will not be sold to telemarketers or data-mining organizations. A variety of “opt-in” mechanisms are available to ensure you are getting just the messages you want to receive, delivered via the devices and communications modes that you choose.
Alert Iowa utilizes the highest standards in physical and computer security technologies and conducts regular audits to ensure all information is kept secure. Privacy policies are also outlined in the Terms and Conditions you review when you sign up to receive Alert Iowa notifications.
Wireless emergency alerts (WEAs) are used to send concise, text-like messages to WEA-capable mobile devices during emergency situations. WEAs are sent by state and local public safety officials, the National Weather Service, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, and the President of the United States. View Wireless Emergency Alerts introduction in PDF format.
More than 100 wireless providers, including all of the largest carriers, have WEA-capable devices. WEA-capable phones first became available in April 2012, but many mobile devices, especially older ones, are not WEA-capable. If you purchase a new mobile device, it will probably be able to receive WEA messages.
There are three types of alerts:
Presidential. Alerts are issued by the President or a designee during a national emergency.
Imminent Threat. Alerts are issued when an imminent threat to life or property exists in your area, including man-made or natural disasters such as flash floods and tornadoes.
Amber. Alerts are issued to help law enforcement search for and locate an abducted child.
iPhone Instructions. By default, Government Alerts are turned on for your device. If you want to turn these alerts on or off, follow these steps: Go to Settings > Notifications. Scroll to the bottom of the screen.
Android OS Instructions. In Android phones, the exact location of the options to enable WEAs vary. Use the search function in the Settings app to find Emergency Alerts. Turn on the ability to allow alerts, or a similar setting you may see.
