SunComm 9-1-1 Communications has added an additional emergency number to the county system in the event of a 9-1-1 outage.

“SunComm is asking residents to add (509) 453-9000 to their home emergency plan, including mobile and computer-based phone systems,” said Brad Coughenour, Director of SunComm Communications. “The (509) 453-9000 number should only be used if residents receive a notification of 9-1-1 services being disrupted or they attempt to call 9-1-1 and receive a busy signal.”

Also, SunComm recommends families teach their children their home address and phone number in case of emergencies.

Visit https://yakima911.org/ for more information about SunComm 9-1-1 Communications.

In addition, community members are encouraged to sign up for Alert Yakima, a free program that provides emergency alerts via voice or text communications.

Offered by Everbridge, the service is the emergency notification system for Yakima Valley Emergency Management.

Sign up for the emergency alert system by clicking www.yakimacounty.us/AlertYakima

Visit www.co.yakima.wa.us/oem for additional information about Alert Yakima.

The Everbridge app is also available at no charge on Google Play and the Apple app store.