Snow emergencies now added to Northland Alerts

Duluth area snow emergencies have now been added to the emergencies system Northland Alerts.

People that have registered will either get an email, call or text whenever the city declares a snow emergency. You can signup for the alerts here.

Public Works Utilities Director Jim Benning says, “It’s a quick response and it’s immediate, as soon as the news media has been alerted, the alert will go out and the residents that have accounts will be alerted at the same time.

And the new alerts have a big connection with the snow emergency routes that are all across the city. Benning says, "They are on your major streets and the intent was to get to every neighborhood so somebody’s only within a couple blocks to get to a snow emergency route that’s been thoroughly plowed curb to curb.”

The city says if you park on these routes you should be prepared to move your car and when you receive an alert on your phone that is the best time to move it.

Benning says, “Once a declaration has been made the residents have between 4pm and 9pm to remove their cars from those designated snow emergency routes."

And to make this an easy winter routine, the city is hoping more people will sign up for the alerts. "We currently have 4,600 customers signed up for Northland Alerts and only 300 of them are currently signed up for snow emergencies. So we are encouraging all residents to go sign up for the alerts…the more prepared you are, the better we can respond to those emergencies”, Benning says.