Thornton CodeRED Emergency Notification System
The City of Thornton uses the CodeRED Emergency Notification System to warn residents of potential life safety dangers and other emergencies like wildfires, floods, criminal activity, evacuations, and water utility outages. The system has the ability to send alerts to individual households, neighborhoods, or the entire city based on the risk to the community, however it requires residents to sign-up. The alerts come in the form of a telephone call, text message, email, social media, mobile alerts to the CodeRED app, and may include the use of the Federal Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS).
Three Easy Ways to Sign-up for CodeRED
- CodeRED Sign-up
- Text THORNTONCO to 99411.
- Call Thornton Dispatch non-emergency line at 720-977-5150.
CodeRED FAQs
You can sign up for CodeRED alerts and manage your profile at the gocot.net/coderedsignup website. Alerts are location based so if you’d like alerts for more than one location within Thornton, you can add additional addresses when you register. We recommend that all members of a single household register separately with their own email address, phone number(s), and consider adding addresses where they spend the majority of their individual time (i.e. work, school, club, and/or faith-based organization) within the city. It is likely that is where you will be when an emergency happens.
CodeRED is an emergency notification service by which emergency officials can notify Thornton residents and businesses by telephone including landline and cellular phone, text message, email and more about emergency situations or critical community alerts. The system is capable of sending messages only to specific households, neighborhoods or the city but you must be signed up to receive the alert.
The system will be used when first responders and emergency officials determine a threat to health and safety is imminent or occurring and actions must be taken minimize impacts. Such situations include but are not limited to wildfires, floods, tornadoes, police activity, water utility outage or interruptions, the need to evacuate or shelter-in-place, and other emergencies that require the public to take action.
A CodeRED message will have the number(s) or caller ID:
- 866-419-5000 or Emergency Comm for Emergency Notifications
- 855-969-4636 or ECN Community for General Notifications
If you need to replay the emergency notification message again, simply dial the number back and you will be able to hear the message again. A CodeRED message will usually begin, “This is an emergency message from the City of Thornton.”
Listen carefully to the entire message. If you need, you can listen to the message multiple times. Follow the instructions given. You may be directed to the city website, social media page, and commercial TV or radio station for further information. Do not hang up until you have heard the entire message or you might miss vital information. Do not call 911 for further information unless directed to do so, only call if you are in need of life saving aid from the Fire or Police Department.
If you are aware of a situation occurring in your area, do not wait for a call if you do not feel safe. Take action and responsibility for your own safety, and act as you see fit to lessen your risk and your family’s risk to hazards.
If your cell phone, work phone or email address changes, you are responsible for going to the website and updating the information. If you change cell phone providers, but keep the same number, you should still update your information as that may impact your phone’s ability to receive an alert. You do not need to update information for landline telephones at your home, if your landline is with a company that reports your number for 9-1-1 services. Some cable and VoIP providers do not subscribe to the 9-1-1 database. You must inquire from your phone company.
If you don’t sign up your cell phone number in CodeRED, you will not receive an emergency notification. The only chance you have of receiving a notification is if the Federal IPAWS system is utilized. However the majority of emergencies will not utilize IPAWS and will only use the CodeRED Opt-in system.
When the emergency notification is activated, the system will make several attempts to reach the registered numbers. Due to the emergency, phone systems, both landlines and cell may be inundated with calls and your provider may not be able to deliver the message. In addition, in an emergency or disaster there is always the possibility that a cell phone tower may be damaged, one’s personal phone settings have alerts turned off, and/or issues among cell phone carriers which may cause someone to not receive an emergency alert. We do not assume legal responsibility for technical difficulties that may result in notification failures.
The CodeRED System and the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS) have much greater capability to notify the whole community directly based on where they are for severe weather and other emergencies via phone, text alerts, television, radio, and more than a tornado siren system can.
No, the information that you provide will be used for emergency purpose only. It will not be given to any vendor or organization or used for any other purpose.
Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEAs) look like text messages, but are designed to get your attention and alert you with a unique sound and vibration both repeated twice. WEAs can be issued for three alert categories – imminent threat, AMBER, and presidential; and can be sent by state and local public safety officials, the National Weather Service, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, and the President of the United States.
The Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS), is FEMA’s national system for local alerting that provides authenticated emergency and life-saving information to the public through mobile phones using Wireless Emergency Alerts, to radio and television via Emergency Alert System, and on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Weather Radio.
The Emergency Alert System (EAS) is a national public warning system that requires broadcasters, satellite digital audio service and direct broadcast satellite providers, cable television systems, and wireless cable systems to provide the President with a communications capability to address the American people within 10 minutes during a national emergency. EAS may also be used by state and local authorities, in cooperation with the broadcast community, to deliver important emergency information, such as weather information, imminent threats, AMBER alerts, and local incident information targeted to specific areas.
The NOAA Weather Radio All Hazards (NWR) is a nationwide network of radio stations broadcasting continuous weather information from the nearest National Weather Service office. NWR broadcasts official warnings, watches, forecasts and other hazard information 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. It also broadcasts alerts of non-weather emergencies such as national security, natural, environmental, and public safety through the Emergency Alert System.