Lee County will be able to take advantage of newer technology when it comes to sending alerts about emergencies or disasters.
The Lee County Sheriff’s Office and the Keokuk and Fort Madison Police Departments have utilized CodeRED for several years.
The system can send a pre-recorded message to hundreds of telephone numbers in seconds.
Sheriff Jim Sholl says CodeRED is being replaced by a new system called DeltAlert.
He says DeltAlert offers more minutes for the same price and some important new features like sending the messages as emails or texts.
Sholl says the notification system has only been used a couple times, with the last being in 2010 when a child went missing from a festival in Fort Madison.
He says residents will have to sign up for the new system even if they received emergency alerts in the past.
Sholl says residents can call the sheriff’s office or visit the websites for Lee Countyand Fort Madison.
