Spokane County revives ALERT system
- Spokane County Emergency Management relaunched ALERT Spokane this week with Regroup Mass Notification, replacing CodeRED after last year’s cyberattack, and told residents to sign up again for texts, emails, app alerts and calls. - Deputy director Chandra Fox said the county lost nearly 50% of its alert-system data after the attack, and previously registered users must re-register because old subscriptions did not transfer. - The county had relied on state and federal alerts for five months after CodeRED went down, leaving local agencies without their own direct warning platform. (spokanecounty.gov)
Spokane County has relaunched ALERT Spokane and is asking residents to enroll again after last year’s cyberattack knocked out the old emergency warning system. (spokanecounty.gov) (krem.com) Spokane County Emergency Management said the new system is powered by Regroup Mass Notification and replaces CodeRED, the platform the county had used since 2017. (spokanecounty.gov) (yahoo.com) The county says residents can now receive alerts by text message, email, mobile app notification and voice call for fires, law enforcement activity, severe weather, road closures and evacuation notices. (kxly920.com) (spokanecounty.gov) Deputy director Chandra Fox told KREM 2 the cyberattack on the old vendor led Spokane County Emergency Management to lose nearly 50% of its data. Fox said the county was not told about the breach for a couple of weeks. (krem.com) That is why previous sign-ups do not carry over. The county says people who were already registered under CodeRED must re-register at ALERT Spokane to keep getting local warnings. (kxly920.com) (fox28spokane.com) Fox told KREM 2 that Spokane County agencies spent the last five months relying on the state alerting system while a countywide panel reviewed five replacement products. She said the selection panel chose Regroup unanimously. (krem.com) The county is urging residents to complete the full registration form, not just the minimum contact fields. Emergency Management says a home address helps target alerts to incidents near a property, including when the resident is away. (spokanecounty.gov) (kxly920.com) Spokane County also said it would send test messages over a 10-day period during daytime hours after the relaunch. Some of those tests may ask users to respond so managers can check delivery and improve geographic targeting. (kxly920.com) (krem.com) Fox said wildfire is only one of several hazards the county wants to cover with the rebuilt system. The county’s message is narrower than that: if you want Spokane County to contact you directly during the next emergency, you have to sign up again. (krem.com) (spokanecounty.gov)
