Because things are so spread out, information spreads differently than in a bigger city, which makes it more important to sign up for local alerts in case of emergencies.
Earlier this week there was an emergency evacuation for a gas leak in Glenwood Springs near Veltus Park, and not everyone got the same kinds of alerts. For those who aren’t signed up, there are many places people can receive emergency information in the region.
These resources are helpful, but fair warning: the lists can take some time to fill out every alert you might want to receive. Another thing to keep in mind is that when these alerts are ignored long enough, they can start getting sent to an email spam box.
In the case of any kind of emergency, it’s good to make sure you are signed up with your local county emergency dispatch center, helpful apps and the right information for your safety.
Garfield County
Anyone who lives in, commutes through or even lives near Garfield County should probably sign up for the Garfield County Emergency Communications Authority or Garfield County 911, and they will send you emergency alerts, like evacuation alerts and more.
In the sign up for emergency alerts, it gives people an option to add locations. There, people can add their work, their home, their children’s schools and other locations of loved ones. It allows people to sign up for voice and/or text messages and email alerts. It also allows for multiple locations and numbers to sign family members up.
There is also the Reachwell App on any smartphone that is a good alert system for people whose first language is not English. The app is an alert system that people can set up in any language and have emergency alerts translated for them.
People can search GARCO911 to get Garfield County Alerts translated into any language. They can also sign up for alerts under Eagle County and Pitkin County. In the alerts people are able to select anything from road closures to emergency alerts and red flag warnings.
Colorado Department of Transportation
CDOT might not be a good source for an alert on a gas leak, but they are a good alert system for travel alerts and information.
This could be a handy tool for anything from a Glenwood Canyon or Vail Pass closure.
Pitkin County
There is also the Pitkin County Regional Emergency Dispatch Center which is Pitkin County 911 and uses the same system as Garfield County, Everbridge.
Eagle County
There is also the Vail Public Safety Communications Center, for the same emergency platform.
Glenwood Springs
Then there is the Glenwood Springs Alert Center. There you can sign up for emails and text alerts from anything like Zoning and Planning meeting updates to emergency updates.
“The main thing is the Glenwood Springs news list, which is the one that we send out alerts through,” said Glenwood Springs Public Information Officer Bryana Starbuck.
Rifle
The town of Rifle uses the same system as Glenwood Springs with an alerts page that allows residents to sign up for anything from road alerts in Rifle to emergency alerts.
Many of the other towns and cities like Aspen, Carbondale, New Castle and Parachute in the region rely on their local county alert system for emergency alerts.