Residents of LA County can now sign up to receive email and text-message alerts in the event of wildfires, natural disasters or other emergencies.

The system allows LA County to notify large numbers of people with vital information to help get them out of harm’s way. People should not rely exclusively on the alerts for evacuation directives, but Alert LA County is one of many effective safety tools.

The County’s 7.1 million land-line phone numbers are already programmed into the system, but people must register other contacts like cell phones and email addresses.

For more information and to sign up, please visit: http://alert.lacounty.gov.