As we’ve reported, the 15th of each month at 3 p.m. has been established as the time of the monthly Alert Iowa system test in Adair and Guthrie County.

Emergency Management Coordinator Bob Kempf says the tests have worked well the first two months, but he’s asking users to perform a crucial step when they receive the monthly message. “With the phone calls, we need them to answer it, listen to the message all the way through and then at the end, it asks if you want to push ‘0’ to repeat, or ‘1’ to acknowledge the message. The thing that gives us one-hundred percent assurance that the system worked and the message came through to a live person is if they hit the ‘1’ button to acknowledge the message.”

If you have any questions about Alert Iowa or need help signing up call Kempf at 641-332-3030.