FlashAlert has collected and distributed school weather closure information to the news media for 44 years. With the arrival of the Internet two decades ago, the system grew from 60 school districts in Portland to nearly 2,000 users across the NW and in Colorado Springs.
To make the system useful year-round, FlashAlert added a channel for news releases. Nearly every police and fire agency, from Longview to Medford, now use FlashAlert. In Portland, we distribute 30-40 news releases a day.
Messages are delivered via email, a web page that the media works from, and files pushed into news media websites.
Some organizations allow the public to self-subscribe to their emergency messages and/or news releases. FlashAlert Messenger delivers those messages to subscribers via email, and push notifications through the FA Messenger app for iOS and Android.