The Chester County Department of Emergency Services (CCDES) recently announced the upgrade of its mass emergency notification system. The upgrade includes a new identification, ReadyChesCo, which replaces the existing ReadyNotify brand.

ReadyChesCo incorporates greater technological capabilities and flexibility. All Chester County residents, businesses and organizations are encouraged to register immediately at www.readychesco.org to receive emergency alerts.

ReadyChesCo's flexibility means residents can choose to receive the type of information they want to receive and can note any special needs information that may be useful for emergency responders. Specific municipality information - notifications and news for residents' local community - can also be chosen by the subscriber.

An advantage of ReadyChesCo is the option of adding more than one way to receive notifications. Residents can choose to have their cell phone, home phone, office phone, and several email addresses receive notifications. Subscribers can also receive messages for more than one address. For places you care about; home, work, parents, schools within Chester County.

Residents will be able to control what device or email receives the messages and in what order. ReadyChesCo will send the message to the first contact path; if that contact path is not confirmed as receiving the message, ReadyChesCo will contact the next contact path and so forth until the subscriber confirms receipt of the message. ReadyChesCo also allows for Quiet Time to be set up so the subscriber is not disturbed when they don't want to be.

If you were a subscriber to ReadyNotifyPA and still wish to receive notifications, you will need to register with ReadyChesCo at www.readychesco.org Registration only takes a few minutes.