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Suffolk County Emergency Notifications

SuffolkAlert is the official emergency notification system used by the Suffolk County Emergency Managers and Public Safety Officials to communicate with community residents during emergencies. Sign up now to receive free alerts from the SuffolkAlert via text message and/or voice message.

Sign up for SuffolkAlert by texting SuffolkAlerts to 67283

Complete your Safety Alert profile at Smart911.

Having a Safety Profile allows you to:

  • Stay informed of weather, traffic, and other emergencies in your community
  • Add your address to receive geo-targeted alerts
  • Indicate what types of alerts you want to receive including weather, traffic, emergency, and more.
  • Indicate how you want to be notified by text, email, and/or voice message.
  • Allow Suffolk County to assist homebound individuals during emergencies Sign up for information about Vector Control, Parks and much more

Frequently Asked Questions

SuffolkAlert is Suffolk County’s official emergency alert and notification system. This system is used to send alerts to the public during emergencies. SuffolkAlert is a free service that allows you to sign up online to receive customized alerts via text message, email, and voice message. In addition to emergency alerts, you can also choose to receive customizable community notifications. These include may include notifications about severe weather, safety, health, utility disruptions, major traffic incidents, and more. This service is provided by the Suffolk County Department of Fire Rescue and Emergency Services at no cost to the public; however, message and data rates may apply.

The best way to stay informed if you are staying a while on Fire Island is to enter the zip code for the place you will be residing at while visiting.

When emergencies happen, be the first to know. The Emergency Management and Public Safety Officials within Suffolk County use SuffolkAlert to send official, real-time alerts to the public with information about potentially life-saving actions they may need to take to keep themselves and their families safe. By signing up for SuffolkAlert, you are taking a large step toward improving your personal safety.

When an emergency occurs that meets the criteria for sending out an alert to the public, the Suffolk County Department of Fire Rescue and Emergency Services emergency dispatchers will gather the necessary information and push out an alert to the affected area. Alerts can be sent out county-wide to everyone who has opted-in to the system, or to a specific area or neighborhood for more localized events.

This service is provided by the Suffolk County Department of Fire Rescue and Emergency Services at no cost to the public; however, message and data rates may apply depending on your provider and phone services.

SuffolkAlert is a quick way of enrolling into our emergency notification system without giving Suffolk County your detailed information. We simply send emergency notifications via text and/or phone call to your cellular device. Smart911 allows you to create a safety profile to add as much or as little information as you want. For example, you can add information if your family member is homebound and requires assistance in the event of an emergency evacuation. Your Smart911 Safety profile will have information available to first responder specific to your residence and detailed household information.

While SuffolkAlert is an excellent system, we cannot guarantee that you will receive notification in all cases. Disasters and emergencies are chaotic and unpredictable, and notification is dependent on external providers such as your wireless carrier or email delivery service outside the Suffolk County’s control. SuffolkAlert will use several means of communications to try to ensure that should any one communications method, technology, or delivery option be unavailable to reach residents, other methods will be used to improve the likelihood that citizens will see the message.

Signing up

Signing up for SuffolkAlert is easy! Go to https://www.smart911.com/smart911/ref/reg.action?pa=NotifySuffolk and register your contact information.

SuffolkAlert is available to anyone who lives, works, travels through, or visits the Suffolk County. The address can be your home location, work location, or any other location you care about.

You can visit your local library to sign up online for SuffolkAlert. Those who do not have computer access are also welcome to attend one of the many scheduled opt-in appointment with Suffolk OEM by calling 631.852.4900

Alerts

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. These include notifications about:
  • Severe
  • Safety risks
  • Health risks
  • Transportation disruption
  • Special event information
  • Test messages

You are not able to reply to texts or emails sent by SuffolkAlert. Voice messages provide a dial-back number to replay an alert message.

Follow the below steps to change your SuffolkAlert preferences (for example, to reduce the number of messages of a certain type, or to change the contacts used for each kind of message):
  1. Go to the login page https://www.smart911.com/smart911/ref/reg.action?pa=NotifySuffolk for SuffolkAlert
  2. Login using your SuffolkAlert username and password (If you’ve forgotten these, follow the instructions on the page under "Forgot Username or Password?")
  3. Once signed in, click the "Preferences" tab at the top
  4. Under "Notification Preferences", you can make changes to both the phone numbers and email addresses on which you want to receive SuffolkAlert messages by clicking or unclicking the checkboxes
  5. You can also choose what alerts you want to receive and the method you wish to receive them by (text, voice, email)
    • For example, if you wish to turn off all messages regarding Transportation Disruptions, simply uncheck the box to the left of "Transportation Disruption"
    • If you wish instead only to receive emails for Transportation Disruption notifications, instead uncheck the "Text" and / or "Voice" choices, so that only “Email” remains checked

The frequency for which you receive alerts depends on the addresses you provide and the types of alerts you select to receive as well as the frequency of actual emergencies. Emergency alerts will only be sent when there is an immediate threat to life and/or property. Community notifications will be sent when the criteria for sending an alert are met.

This system is not intended to bombard you with information. The County will only send you alerts about the information you select to receive. To change your alert settings, login to https://www.smart911.com/smart911/ref/reg.action?pa=NotifySuffolk and edit your preferences.

If a call completes and is sent to your answering machine or voice mail system, a message is left. If a phone call is not answered or busy, the system redials your number several times.

Privacy & Contact Information

No, your information is private and will not be used or distributed in any manner. The information that you provide is exempt from public disclosure and will be used for emergency purposes only.

Personal information provided to SuffolkAlert is private and only used to notify you for official Suffolk County communications and to support the Suffolk County’s emergency services.

Your information is not used for marketing purposes and will not be sold to telemarketers or data-mining organizations. A variety of "opt-in" mechanisms are available to ensure you are getting just the messages you want to receive, delivered via the devices and communications modes that you choose.

SuffolkAlert utilizes the highest standards in physical and computer security technologies and conducts regular audits to ensure all information is kept secure. Privacy policies are also outlined in the Terms and Conditions you review when you sign up to receive SuffolkAlert notifications.

Suffolk County Government

H. Lee Dennison Bldg

100 Veterans Memorial Hwy
P.O. Box 6100
Hauppauge, NY 11788

Riverhead County Center

County Road 51
Riverhead, NY 11901