Alerts & Warnings

Public Sign-up for Emergency Alert - AlertSense

Island County is able to send you emergency alerts via text message, email, pager or voice mail, based on your preferences. Sign up for Emergency Alerts & Community Notifications.

The system is for emergency alerts as well as non-emergency incidents that may significantly impact residents. Emergency alerts could be related to specific hazards that require some kind of action be taken such as evacuation, shelter in place, boil water orders, etc. Non-emergency alerts could include such things as significant transportation problems with prolonged impacts or significant ongoing police or fire activity.

There is also a mobile app, myAlerts, powered by AlertSense, Island County's emergency alerting service. Residents and visitors can  receive life-saving emergency alerts and advanced warning of severe weather directly on their Android or Apple iOS phone or tablet.

Earthquake Early Warning Apps

MyShake

The free MyShake app provides Washington residents and visitors a way to receive seconds of warning to prepare for an imminent earthquake. MyShake was esigned by the University of California, Berkeley seismologists and engineers.

The app as well as Android's built-in system will deliver alerts to people for earthquakes exceeding magnitude 4.5 which will cause light to strong shaking in their area. As a comparison, the WEA system is expected to send alerts for earthquakes larger than a 5.0 which cause moderate to strong shaking. 

ShakeAlert

The ShakeAlert® Earthquake Early Warning system, run by the U.S. Geological Survey in partnership with the universities of Washington, Oregon, California-Berkeley and Caltech, uses ground motion sensors in all three states to detect earthquakes that have occurred and automatically notifies residents and visitors. 

Types of Alerts You Can Choose to Receive

  • Severe Weather Alerts: Receive advanced warning of severe weather when you or one of your locations is in the direct path of the storm.  AlertSense receives feeds from the National Weather Service, automatically interprets the geographic area affected, and delivers targeted alerts immediately to app users when one of their locations falls within the impact area. 
  • Public Safety Alerts: Receive emergency alerts from public safety alerting authorities, notifying you of situations that threaten the safety of yourself or those you care about. Public safety alerts include events such as crime, active shooter, imminent danger, hazardous materials, wildfire, floods and the need for immediate evacuation.
  • Community Notifications: Receive notifications of events in your community that, while not life-threatening emergencies, still impact your daily life and commute, such as road closures and power outages.
  • My Locations: Add all the locations that matter to you, both within the county and even in other parts of the country. For example, you could identify your home, your child's school, where your aging parent resides, the university where your older child attends, and your office. When you travel, you can enable the app to "monitor my current location" in order to receive any emergency alerts issued for the city or area you are visiting.   

You can download the free myAlerts app today from the Google Play Store or the App Store. 

AHAB Siren Locations

Island County has seven tsunami sirens installed around Camano and Whidbey islands. These sirens will play a test notification on the first Monday of every month.
  • Dugualla Bay - ​715 Bay Front Lane, Oak Harbor
  • Oak Harbor Marina ​ - 1429-1699 SE Catalina Dr. Oak Harbor
  • ​Driftwood Shores ​ - 554 Waterline Loop, Camano Island
  • ​Iverson Beach - ​105 Iverson Road, Camano Island
  • ​Keystone ​ - 375 Keystone Ave., Coupeville
  • ​Lagoon Point ​ - 3598 S Seashore Ave., Greenbank
  • ​West Beach ​ - 2698-2740 W Beach Road, Oak Harbor

Information Sources During an Emergency

For a major event, Island County DEM will send alerts through the Emergency Alert System. This message goes to all of the media outlets throughout the region as well as the National Weather Service. Radio and television stations will immediately broadcast the alert across their respective outlets. It will also broadcast on NOAA Weather radios.

Weather Information

Radio Stations

Island County DEM Emergency Alerts are sent to the region's television stations, including:

Television Stations

Island County DEM Emergency Alerts are sent to the region's television stations as well. When the alerts go to the Central Puget Sound Region it includes:
  • Comcast
  • Click

Social Media

Island County DEM shares information and preparedness tips on the following:

Communication Hubs

If power is out throughout Island County and cell towers are damaged, DEM will utilize other means to keep the community informed, including:

  • Posting information on bulletin boards throughout the county as well as in public buildings. 
  • Establishing official Communication Hubs, places around the county where residents can receive important information related to situational awareness, assistance and recovery. It can also be a means for DEM to collect information related to damage assessments. Trained volunteers will be staffing these hubs. Details are still being developed, but so far public libraries have been identified as suitable locations.

Neighborhoods can also establish their own community Communication Hubs as a place for neighbors to gather and share information with one another. It can be as simple as having a table, bulletin board and a NOAA weather radio. Amateur radios can add even more capability to these hubs.