About Notify NYC
New York City has created a dedicated emergency notification office operating out
of the Office of Emergency Management
(OEM). Notify NYC staff work in OEM
Watch Command, where they constantly monitor emergency activity in New
York City and the metropolitan area.
The goal for Notify NYC is to provide the information you want to receive, the way
you want to receive it. Registration offers nine notification types:
- Emergency Alerts – messages about life-threatening
events that may require immediate action. All registrants are automatically added
to this list.
- Significant Event Notifications – important information
about emergency events, utility outages and other types of high-impact events in
your area code.
- Public Health Notifications – information about important
public health issues in your community.
- Public School Closing/Delay Advisories – updates about
unscheduled public school closings, delays, and early dismissals.
- Unscheduled Parking Rules Suspensions – updates about
unscheduled suspensions of citywide parking rules.
- Major Mass Transit Disruptions – messages about large or widespread mass transportation disruptions.
- Major Traffic Disruptions – messages about significant roadway closures, disruptions, or detours.
- Waterbody Advisories – messages about combined sewer overflow (CSO) activity in New York City's waterbodies.
- Beach Notifications - information from the NYC Department of Health and NYC Department of Parks and Recreation regarding the status of NYC beaches.
Notify NYC started as a pilot program in December of 2007 in four areas. It went citywide May 2009 as a
means to communicate localized emergency information quickly to city residents. The City wanted a way to
update New Yorkers quickly with official information after several incidents occurred in 2007, such
as: tornadoes, a steam pipe explosion, and crane collapses. Since its inception,
Notify NYC has sent out thousands of notifications about local emergencies.
To make Notify NYC even more valuable, we want your input on the development and
future of Notify NYC services.
Take the survey or send
feedback about what you would like to see incorporated into the program.
Notify NYC is just one way the City of New York seeks to communicate urgent information
to city residents. In addition to sending e-mails, text messages, tweets,
and phone calls, the emergency notification office has the ability to activate NYC’s Emergency
Alert System (EAS), which sends information immediately via television and radio. Additional
technologies are always being evaluated as they become available, including new
social networking tools. For more information, visit the
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page.