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1. Will the City or County sell my information to marketing companies?

No the information provided for the WENS Public Notification System is provided soley for the purpose of providing public notification by the City of Storm Lake and Buena Vista County. Notices sent through the system will originate from either the City of Storm Lake, Buena Vista County or the National Weather Service.

2. Is there a cost to participate in the service?

There is no cost to sign up for the service or to participate in the service from the WENS System side. Some mobile phone users may have fees from their cell phone provider if they elect to receive text messages from teh WENS System. We suggest that you contact your cell phone provider if you are unsure of if text messages from us will result in a charge.

3. What do you mean by you can contact me by phone?

The system allows Public Safety staff to make a series of phone calls for the entire community or a select area within a series of minutes to provide public safety information. This is typically called a "reverse 911 system" and uses your home telephone line or land phone line. For those individuals who do not have a land phone line the system will not work; therefore, it is important that you sign up with your cell phone and email address to allow us to contact.

4. I already am signed up for Nixle do I need to sign up for WENS?

Yes, the City of Storm Lake is transitioning to WENS as the sole provider for emergency notifications and will discontinue the use of Nixle by February 2012.