Earthquake & Weather & Tsunami Alerts

Pacific NW Earthquake Alerts

Our local Pacific Northwest Seismic Network (PNSN) works in conjunction with the USGS to offer this free Earthquake Notification Service. You can now also sign up for notification using the new Early Alert System! You can set a geographical area you would like to monitor - plus a magnitude range - so you get just the right level of alerts for you.

Tsunami Alerts

The National Weather Service offers an extensive alerting system for bad weather as well as tsunamis. Use this direct link to setup an account for email or text delivery of tsunami notifications. Once in the system you will be able to set preferences for what notifications you are interested in receiving.

You can also sign up for Tsunami Notifications via the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center at http://ptwc.weather.gov/subscribe.php

Residents/Businesses should also consider purchasing an All Hazard Weather Radio. Tsunami Warnings (among other alerts) are transmitted over these weather radio frequencies. Detail are at: http://www.nws.noaa.gov/nwr/info/allhazard.html

ALERT King County

ALERT King County is an enhanced service that allows King County residents to receive important information about significant events or emergency situations via telephone, text, and email.

ALERT King County also allows you to register your home and work addresses for geographic-specific alerts. Registration is free and confidential. AlertKingCounty replaces the older Regional Public Information Network (RPIN) system.

This will be a great addition to Voice Of Vashon Alerts, as this can send much more targeted notices - to just your neighborhood for instance. Sign up for both!

Read more about Vashon's use of it on our blog.

Pierce County Alerts

Pierce County ALERT is a free service that allows you to sign up and receive notifications about emergencies that may affect the locations you care about. This service allows fire, police and other agencies dealing with emergency response to send out accurate and up-to-date information that they feel residents should be informed on.

Receive alerts on up to 10 different devices such as your cell phone, home phone, email, text messages and more. Choose up to five locations you want to be notified about such as your residence, workplace, children’s school and more.

From http://wa-piercecounty.civicplus.com/index.aspx?nid=921

Signup for Future Emergency Alerts

Voice of Vashon logo VashonBePrepared and Vashon Island Fire & Rescue has partnered with Voice of Vashon to create and maintain a single alert service for Vashon Island residents, workers, schoolchildren and other guests. The email list is dedicated to keeping people informed, comfortable and safe.

Major infrastructure improvements to the VoV Emergency Alert Service funded by community organizations made this possible in May 2015. Now everyone can access a carefully curated alert service that posts a wide variety of news for folks on the island:

Ferry delays and cancellations,
Inclement weather updates,
Emergency services (family and pet reunification, shelter locations, food and water availability after an earthquake or other serious event),
Water outages,
Accident, traffic and road reports, and
Other urgent news affecting islanders.

This free service currently uses Constant Contact which allows users to maintain their own subscriptions and opt out of the alert system at any time.The list is a great way to get the latest, authoritative information during an emergency - and during routine situations too!

In May 2015 we merged the Voice of Vashon and VashonBePrepared email lists to create a new list for Vashon's Emergency Alert System. We call it a system because you can also receive alerts on 1650AM, Voice of Vashon and VashonBePrepared websites, VoV's Facebook page and on the free VoV smartphone app.

The new service pools emergency information into a single source of email notices on power outages, storms, ferry disruptions and even worse emergencies that we hope the Island never faces.

We hope you'll take advantage of this new service but, if you do decide to opt out later, each alert email will have a way to do that.

This is a great way to receive authoritative information directly from Vashon Island Fire & Rescue (VIFR) and/or VashonBePrepared during critical events affecting Vashon and Maury Island residents and businesses.

How to Sign Up

There is now one simple way to sign up. Simply go to the VoiceOfVashon signup page at Constant Contact.

Constant Contact uses SafeSubscribe which guarantees the permanent removal of your email address from its mailing lists. Note: In each email you receive, there will be a link to unsubscribe or change areas of interest. Your privacy is important to us - please read our Email Privacy Policy. We won't send you other emails or divulge your email address!)

TransportatiON Alerts

King County Road Alerts

VoV Alerts typically carry the King County Road Alerts, but you can sign up for those independently too at:

http://kingcounty.gov/depts/transportation/roads/road-alert.aspx

Washington State DOT Ferry Alerts

Note that the Voice of Vashon Emergency Alerts includes MOST ferry alerts. ALERT King County does not include ferry updates. Although largely redundant with the VoV Alert Service, you can sign up directly with WA DOT at:
https://secure1.wsdot.wa.gov/ferries/account/index.cfm?type=Alerts

Sign Up for King County Water Taxi Service Alerts

photo: woman using cell phone The Water Taxi uses an e-mail alert system to notify passengers when sailings will be canceled or delayed by more than 15 minutes. (VoV Alerts also carries these. We're not sure if these are carried on RPIN.)

To subscribe:

Go to the Sign up for alerts page on Metro Transit's website
Enter your e-mail address and click Sign Up
Scroll down to Marine & Other Routes
Check King County-operated Vashon Water Taxi (975) or West Seattle Water Taxi (973)
Add Metro routes if you wish
Click Save

AlertSeattle

Stay informed when you are roaming the urban lands: Consider subscribing to AlertSeattle – the City’s real-time emergency alert and notification system, originated in August 2015.

When emergencies happen, be the first to know. AlertSeattle is your link to real-time, official notifications from the City of Seattle.

AlertSeattle is a free service that allows you to sign up online to receive customized alerts via text message, email, voice message, and on social media (Facebook and Twitter). This service is provided by the City of Seattle at no cost; however, message and data rates may apply.

In addition to emergency alerts, you can also choose to receive customizable community notifications. These will include notifications about severe weather, safety, health, utility disruptions, major traffic incidents, and more.

Enrolling in AlertSeattle is simple:

1. Go to alert.seattle.gov

2. Register your information

3. Tell them how to reach you (via text message, email or voice message)

4. Select the types of alerts you want to receive

5. Receive alerts and stay informed!

Follow AlertSeattle on Facebook and Twitter too!

Your information is private and will not be used or distributed in any manner. This system is available to anyone who lives, works, travels through or visits Seattle. For more, go to: alert.seattle.gov.