Hey CU: It's Flood Season, Are You Signed Up For Emergency Texts?

The University of Colorado, Boulder will begin testing its alerts system Thursday in conjunction with the beginning of flood season.

“It has text alerts, email, social media website announcements. So we have a variety of way to message our students’ faculty and staff when we have an emergency,” said CU-Boulder spokesperson Ryan Huff.

Huff said the system was used frequently during last September’s flooding to warn of rising creek water levels and evacuations.

The city of Boulder has just released its Spring 2014 Post-Flood Companion Guide, providing information on risks specific to post-flood conditions as well as the top eight personal preparedness tips to help people get ready for the 2014 flood season.

Many areas of graduate and family housing, as well as campus buildings are located close to Boulder Creek and were evacuated last fall.

“The CU and Boulder communities know all too well how flood waters can quickly rise and cause damage,” said Stuart Pike, CU-Boulder emergency management director. “It’s critical that faculty, students and staff have their contact information up-to-date in order to receive timely information from the CU-Boulder Alerts system.”

Huff said active CU-Boulder student email addresses are automatically registered. The university encourages students to add mobile phone numbers in order to receive text notifications as well. Faculty, staff or affiliates of the CU-Boulder community with Colorado email address are encouraged to register.

According to a press release, “more than 90 percent of CU-Boulder students, faculty and staff who are signed up for the campus alerts system have at least one mobile device registered.”