State office closure alerts switch systems Nov. 1, and subscribers must sign up again

The Alaska Department of Transportation & Public Facilities said Friday it is moving state office closure alerts to a new system on Nov. 1, and anyone who gets them now will have to sign up again to keep receiving them.

The alerts tell state employees and the public when state offices close for bad weather or other reasons. Subscriptions on the current system, GovDelivery, will not carry over to the new one, Everbridge, the department said in a notice sent Friday.

Only the governor or the governor's designee can close state offices, and the transportation commissioner is responsible for telling the rest of state government, the media and the public, according to the department's office closure page, which has instructions for signing up.

Registration takes about five minutes and requires a valid email address. Users pick one or more of five regions, Anchorage/Mat-Su, Greater Fairbanks, Kenai Peninsula, Southeast and All Others, and choose email, text message or both. Users get alerts only for the regions they select, and the department's registration guide lists which region each community falls in.