HAMILTON — A new mass emergency notification system is coming to the Bitterroot.
Ravalli County Sheriff Steve Holton says that the County recently selected Hyper-Reach as its new mass emergency notification system. It replaces AlertSense, which had been in operation since 2016.
Hyper-Reach is a state-of-the-art mass emergency notification system designed specifically for public safety, according to Holton. Ravalli County will use the system to provide rapid notifications of hazardous or urgent situations, such as severe weather, fires, flooding, evacuations, road closures, criminal activity, and other community alerts.
Community members may select a variety of contact methods to receive notifications, including text message, email, telephone calls, and even TTY/TDD service for the hearing impaired. The system can also send broadcast messages to most current mobile phones in an affected area by providing access to FEMA’s Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) system.
“Our job is to protect the citizens of Ravalli County as effectively and efficiently as possible,” said Erik Hoover, Director of Emergency Management for Ravalli County. “We evaluated a number of providers of emergency notification systems, and Hyper-Reach gave us the solution we needed.”
Those who had previously registered with AlertSense will need to register with Hyper-Reach to ensure they receive notifications.
Landline phones in Ravalli County are automatically registered for urgent emergency alerts, but community and weather alerts to mobile phones and email addresses are only included by enrolling in the system.
Residents are being encouraged to enroll in the Hyper-Reach system. Click here for more information or call (406) 215-1909.
