RALEIGH, N.C. — Are you prepared for an emergency? Leaders in Wake County are encouraging residents to have a plan in place in case of an emergency or natural disaster. 

To aid in the planning process, the county rolled out a new feature to their ReadyWake Alerts system. The system now includes customizable severe weather alerts. 

What You Need To Know

  • ReadyWake Alerts is an emergency alert system in Wake County 
  • A new feature includes severe weather alerts 
  • Users can register an unlimited amount of addresses in Wake County 
  • Alerts can be customized 

ReadyWake Alerts is a public alert notification system that sends messages to registered users. Alerts can include anything from missing persons, boil water advisories to hazmat incidents.

Alerts are sent from the Emergency Mangament Department, led by Darshan Patel. 

"It gives us the ability to send a very critical notification to our community as quickly as possible," Patel said. 

Users can register an unlimited amount of addresses in the county, like their home, work or school. If their address falls into a specific radius, they will be alerted to the emergency by either a text message, voice message or email. 

"They're only getting the places they want," Patel said. 

Patel has worked in emergency management for over a decade and has seen firsthand how important emergency notification systems are. 

“We had a very recent search in the Town of Cary where we used this system to notify folks around that area, and somebody who was registered in our system received that and actually spotted that person in the community and was able to alert the authorities," Patel said.

ReadyWake Alerts is free to register and use. 

Anyone in the state can also receive weather alerts on the Spectrum News App. The app is available in the App Store or Google Play.