City of Ruston is switching emergency alert systems starting April 1st.

RUSTON, La. (KTVE/KARD) —

Lincoln Parish has already been using Lincalerts for several months now, and Ruston is now joining the rest of the Parish in switching emergency alert systems from CodeRED to Lincalerts.

Kip Franklin, the Director of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness, has been heading this project. He has been the one helping cities in Lincoln Parish switch over to Lincalerts. Unfortunately he was out of office today, but Dusty Hampton, the IT Telecom Director for City of Ruston was able to provide information on this new system.

Sure, so Lincalerts is a public alert system that’s designed to just kind of keep all of our residents informed, were using this in the city of Ruston, but it’s also being used under the umbrella of Lincoln Parish.

Dusty Hampton | IT Telecom Director for City of Ruston

This new system will still push out, to everyone in the Parish, any regular emergency or weather alert on your phones. The difference is residents can now sign up for other alerts, like road closures, events, and other things that pertain to their area, and not receive a notification from a different area. These notifications can also be chosen from phone calls, text messages, or just notifications.

This new system, it still allows us to push out emergency alerts to everybody based on a geographical area, but it allows those residents to then sign up for things that are optional. Like those events at our sports complex, or downtown activities. So it does give a little more control to the residents on what kind of alert they want to receive.

Dusty Hampton | IT Telecom Director for City of Ruston

Residents to have to sign up for it and choose what they want sent to their phones and how.

So all residents can go to www.lincalerts.org. They can also visit our page at www.ruston.org and there will be a lincalerts registration button right there on the homepage and they can register from that website.

Dusty Hampton | IT Telecom Director for City of Ruston

Sign up with those two links above to get your customized alerts that pertain to your preferences and location, sent to your phone.