Columbia County is gradually introducing a new emergency alert system starting this week

Columbia County is getting a new emergency alert system starting this week.

Hyper-Reach will be phased in over the next few weeks and will replace the current Code Red system, so sign up soon to continue receiving alerts, the county’s website says.

The service is free and offers residents the option to opt in or out of notifications via phone and/or email. Alerts include severe thunderstorms, tornadoes, hurricanes, water outages and road closures. The whole family can be enrolled with one registration and each phone can be set to the user’s notification preferences.

To register, go to https://signup.hyper-reach.com/hyper_reach/sign_up_page_2/?id=113127.

This article originally appeared in the Augusta Chronicle: Columbia County phases in new emergency alert system