Alert Montgomery Subscribers Urged to Update Their Accounts (VIDEO)

PHOTO | Pete Piringer

Montgomery County residents and frequent visitors have benefited from the Alert Montgomery emergency warning system since its creation in 2004. In the next few weeks, important changes are coming to the system. New enhancements to the alert system will improve the speed, reliability and customization of the alerts subscribers can receive.

The process for upgrading current Alert Montgomery accounts will begin on October 15. Subscribers must update their existing account, or open a new account, on or after that date, to gain access to the new features.

Montgomery County Executive Isiah Leggett announced the changes Oct. 13 at the Emergency Operations Center, 1300 Quince Orchard Blvd. in Gaithersburg.

To obtain these new enhancements, current subscribers must re-register (update) their current Alert Montgomery accounts. Subscribers will be notified by an email, on October 15, from the new Alert Montgomery system provider, Everbridge, with a trusted and secure link. The link will remain open for 72 hours. Alert Montgomery subscribers are encouraged to take advantage of that opportunity to upgrade to the new system.

The Everbridge email will provide prompts to take the following actions:

1. Provide a new user name and password;
2. Choose the devices through which alerts will be received; and
3. Select the types of alerts to be received.

Subscribers will be able to upgrade their Alert Montgomery system to enable them to use such new enhanced features as:
* Selecting as many or few alerts as desired for emergencies, weather, traffic, school closings and more
* Receiving alerts via cell phone, email, text, home land line phone, work phone, or the new Mobile Member app
* Choosing to get alerts for a specific address and also for other locations of particular interest
* Specifying particular times during the day or night when you would prefer to block any incoming notifications

The following is a list of some of the notification topics available through Alert Montgomery:
* Severe weather warnings to include tornado watches/warnings
* Traffic disruptions – major collisions and road closures
* School emergency notifications – closings
* Shelter-in-place and evacuation information
* Significant water main breaks and downed power lines and outages
* Significant law enforcement or fire rescue incidents impacting the community

When an incident or emergency occurs, authorized senders will notify subscribers through Alert Montgomery. This gives the subscriber a direct connection to updates, instructions on where to go, what to do, or what not to do, who to contact and other important information.

Current subscribers who do not update their account will still receive some emergency alerts but will not have access to any of the new alert features.
Residents who live in the Cities of Rockville, Gaithersburg or Takoma Park should sign up for those cities’ alerting systems by clicking on the following links. Some alerts from the County system will be automatically relayed onto these cities’ systems. Existing subscribers to any of these systems, will receive separate sign-up instructions:
* City of Rockville
* City of Gaithersburg
* City of Takoma Park

To learn more about the Alert Montgomery system go to http://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/oemhs/AlertMontgomery/FAQ.html, or call 3-1-1 or 240.777.0311.

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