Excerpted from the Vermont Emergency Management July 2025 newsletter.
The recent tragedies in Texas serve as a stark reminder of the importance of information before and during a disaster.
All Vermont cities and towns have access to the state’s notification system, VT-ALERT, for communicating emergency and other information to the public. Vermont Emergency Management (VEM) provides training for municipal personnel to allow local officials to issue alerts for emergency protective measures, road closures, boil water notices, and other information.
VT-ALERT allows users to select which specific alerts they receive and for which specific areas, like home and work. Users also decide whether alerts should be sent via the Everbridge app, text, email, phone, or any combination. The public can register at www.vtalert.gov.
Subscribers must specify a location to receive National Weather Service alerts automatically. Subscribers should set quiet times for messages, but VEM overrides quiet times and subscription preferences to send out urgent, life-safety messages about things like floods, poison gas leaks, tornadoes, and dam breaches.
Recent uses by towns have included road closures and a missing persons alert that resulted in the location of the elderly individual.
VT-ALERT is integrated with the Emergency Alert System and Wireless Emergency Alerts as the primary means by which the state and federal governments notify the public of imminent emergencies.
Towns can inquire about the local adoption of VT-ALERT by contacting our VT-Alert Administrator at DPS.VTAlert@vermont.gov.
Communities and response organizations that wish to promote the service can get blocks of advertising rack cards from Vermont Emergency Management by contacting susan.plant@vermont.gov.