Orangetown Police Urge Residents To Sign Up For Emergency Alert Network

When there's an emergency in town, Orangetown police say they want to be able to reach out to residents quickly with key information.

To accomplish that, police officials are encouraging residents to sign up for a free emergency notification system called NY-ALERT. The system is used by state agencies and local municipalities to provide notifications about general public safety, transportation issues as well as significant weather problems.

Orangetown police, the town Highway Department, the town Office of Emergency Management and the Rockland County Office of Fire and Emergency Services are already using the system to send notices to the public. The system was used during Hurricane Irene and during the freak Halloween Weekend snowstorm on Oct. 29.

NY-ALERT is free to subscribe to, and can be customized to send specific types of alerts to an e-mail account. To sign up for alerts, go to www.nyalert.gov or call 888-697-6972.

Orangetown police say they also use NY-ALERT in conjunction with the Rockland County 911 emergency telephone system to launch reverse-911 calls to residents and businesses when there is a public safety issue.