Sign up for emergency alerts
What is AlertSeattle?
AlertSeattle is the City of Seattle’s official emergency alert and notification system. This system is used to send alerts to the public and internally to city employees during emergencies. AlertSeattle is a free service that allows you to sign-up online for customized alerts.
Types of customized alerts:
- text message
- voice message
- social media (Facebook and X)
Why should I sign up?
AlertSeattle is the best way to get critical public safety information during an emergency. By signing up for AlertSeattle, you are taking a large step toward improving your personal safety. If you do not sign-up and register your contact information, you will not receive alerts on your preferred devices, and may miss out on receiving important safety information.
Sign up for AlertSeattle to receive alerts via text message, email, voice message, or social media. Or text the word SEATTLE to 67283.
How does it work?
When an emergency occurs that meets the criteria for sending out an alert to the public, the City’s emergency dispatchers will gather the necessary information and push out an alert to the affected area. Alerts can be sent out city-wide to everyone who has opted-in to the system, or to a specific area or neighborhood for more localized events.
You sign up just for the alerts you need, and your information will never be sold to a third party or used for anything except these notifications.
In addition to emergency alerts, you can also choose to receive customizable community notifications.
Customizable notification topics:
- severe weather
- safety
- health
- utility disruptions
- major traffic incidents
This service is provided by the City of Seattle at no cost to the public; however, message and data rates may apply.
Who can sign up?
AlertSeattle is available to:
- Anyone who lives, works, travels through, or visits the City of Seattle
- All Seattle City Light and Seattle Public Utilities customers
The address can be your home location, work location, or any other location you care about. For those who visit Seattle, but do not live or work in the City, pick the address of the location(s) you visit often.
Frequently Asked Questions
While AlertSeattle integrates with the existing Smart911 service in King County, they are two services that each serve a unique purpose. Smart911 provides a safety profile of your information directly to 9-1-1 when you call 9-1-1 in the event of an emergency. AlertSeattle will ensure you receive emergency alerts from the city of Seattle. Rave Mobile Safety is the vendor for both AlertSeattle and Smart911.
Emergency alerts are sent 24/7 when there is an immediate threat to life and/or property. In addition to emergency alerts, you can also choose to receive customizable community notifications. Community notifications are sent between the hours of 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. These include notifications about:
Severe weather: snow events, freezing rain, high winds, tidal and urban flooding, thunderstorms and more.
Safety: incidents that may pose a risk to the public including criminal activity, serial arson, and multiple alarm fires.
Health: contagious diseases, food and water contamination, and more.
Transportation disruption: impacts to transportation services including major street and bridge closures or events that affect travel.
Utility service disruptions or changes in service schedule: impacts to drinking water, sewer, storm water, and garbage and recycling pickup.
Special event information: community events that may affect travel, business activity and safety including parades, emergency drills, demonstrations and more.
Emergency preparedness information: find out about emergency preparedness events and trainings in your area.
Test messages: receive periodic test messages to verify operation of the AlertSeattle system
The content on the AlertSeattle opt-in webpage uses Google Translate and can be translated into over 80 languages. However, at this time, the alerts themselves will only be sent out in English. After practicing with English as Second Language audiences, we found the translation needed more work to be more customer friendly. The City is currently working with the vendor on a solution to have the capability of sending out translated alerts in the near future.