Lehigh County Emergency Services is now providing Reverse 911, a community notification system to be used to notify residents about emergencies that may impact their safety. This could include alerts during prolonged weather events.

Residents and businesses with traditional landline telephone connections are already automatically registered to receive the notifications. This includes wireline service by telephone companies such as Verizon, Ironton, Frontier, Service Electric, Blue Ridge and RCN. Residents with a landline from these companies do not need to take any action to be included in the system, which has already been activated.

Those using VoIP carriers such as Vonage and Magic Jack must register their home telephones to receive alerts.

Cellphones must be registered.

Notifications sent to cellphones are based on the address entered when registering, not the location of the cellphone at the time an alert is sent out.

To register a cellphone or a home phone with VolP technology, visit www.lehighcounty.org and click on the "Reverse 911" link.

It is also possible to register to receive a text notification or an email, however, the county will send out voice notification first and cannot be responsible for overloading of a cellphone network during a widespread emergency which causes delays in delivering alerts.

In the event of an emergency, Lehigh County Emergency Services may use the Reverse 911 system to contact residents and businesses with a recorded message about events that warrant community notification.

"We have two goals in mind in announcing this service," said county Executive Bill Hansell in a news release from the county. "First, we urge everyone who lives or works in Lehigh County to sign up for these free notifications, and secondly, don't hang up. We need users of the service to recognize a reverse 911 alert from Lehigh County Emergency Services and stay on the line to hear the message."

Reverse 911 calls will appear on caller IDs as "911Alert" or the phone number, which is 610-782-4600.

They complement but do not replace radio and television information broadcast by the Emergency Alert System and by NOAA weather radio.