With chances of thunderstorms this week, Washington County Emergency Management is asking residents if they’ve signed up for the new Alert Iowa system.

The statewide emergency notification system is now being provided by software developer RAVE Mobile Safety which took effect July 1st. Those who were registered for the previous system are not automatically carried over to this new system, so Washington County Emergency Management Coordinator Marissa Reisen encourages the public to sign up today. Reisen says with the new provider it should eliminate the cluttered, outdated list of contacts the county had to send notifications, “Each person, they can create a user profile and then they can update it whenever anything changes. So if your address changes, if your phone number’s changed, you can go in and update that information at any time so that we are always sending messages the most appropriate way for each person to get the message.”

Reisen adds that the new alert system can also translate messages to around 40 different languages as well. You can sign up for Alert Iowa online, by texting WashingtonIA to to 67283, or by downloading the Smart911 app from the Apple or Google Play stores.