Hamilton County just can't seem to stop getting hit with severe weather this week. A confirmed tornado touched down about four miles north of Hampton on Wednesday causing minor damage to grain bins and outbuildings.

"Several pivots and towers were tipped over, probably three or four whole pivots were flipped over," said Hamilton County Emergency Management Director Kirt Smith. "Numerous power poles - probably about in the dozen range - were knocked over."

Then Thursday afternoon another storm system moved through, spawning a funnel cloud just southwest of Aurora a little before 5:00 p.m. The debris cloud could be seen for several minutes before the storm that included heavy rain, strong winds, and hail pushed slowly north.

It's in the wake of these storms that emergency managers across the state are encouraging people to sign up for notification systems like CodeRED.

"CodeRED is a high-speed notification system that we use," said Smith. "The weather warning part of it you have to enroll to be in it, and you can be signed up for the tornado warnings. The warnings only go off if you're in the actual warning from the polygon that's issued by the National Weather Service."

That means that in weather situations CodeRED won't notify you if the storm is nearby, but your address isn't in the specific warning area. Smith says it's a good idea to have more than one notification system.

"It's important to have [something like] the NOAA weather radio that will go off for your whole county," he said. "It's important to have several ways of being notified."

Smith says systems like CodeRED work well because citizens can sign up their cell phone numbers too.

"It just gets the message out farther to people with today's technology, and people having mobile phones and not landlines, or not being inside and running around," he said. "This way you can get it right to your cell phone, and you can get text messages with it. There's several [notification systems] out there you can get. This is one that we provide free to our citizens in Hamilton County."

Smith says if you think you've signed up for CodeRED before but aren't sure, you can always enroll again. Hamilton County citizens can do that through the county website (which can be accessed by clicking on the link below), or by calling Smith's office at 402-694-5126.

CodeRED is used by other Nebraska counties, and is used to alert people about missing children or other threats. Citizens need to sign up through the counties in which they reside in order to receive the correct alerts. The Hastings Police Department issued a CodeRED warning after a recent armed robbery. They have released a list of answers to questions people often have about how CodeRED works and how to sign up:

Frequently Asked Questions (from the Hastings Police Dept.):
1. Am I automatically in the database to receive alerts?
No. Weather Warning is an Opt- in only service. You must register by either clicking on the CodeRED link on the home page of our website and enter your contact information… or you can call Captain Gene Boner at The Hastings Police Department at 402-461-2380 or the Adams County Emergency Management office at 402-461-2360 and have the staff enter your information.

2. I saw an advertisement to register for CodeRED; do I have to register each year?
No. Once you have registered, your information remains.

3. I can't remember if I registered or what alerts I registered for.
You can register again if you do not remember if you have registered before to ensure that you are signed up.

4. Can I make a change on the notifications I am receiving?
Yes. If you want to make changes on the Severe Weather notifications, simply register again on the homepage of our website and click on the weather alerts you want. It will delete what you had in the past.

5. When I registered the map did not show my exact location.
You need to click on the red marker on the map and drag to your address location. You can zoom in on the map to make it easier to find your exact location.

6. Why did CodeRED call me several times?
If there is no answer and you do not have an answering device, you will be retried three times in each notification.

7. It called me but no message played.
If you answer and do not say hello, CodeRED will not begin playing automatically. It is listening trying to determine if it has reached a live person or answering device. If you do not say anything, it will hang up and retry the number again.

8. Why did it leave only part of the message on my answering machine?
CodeRED will leave a message on an answering device. There are many different capturing devices for leaving a message. Occasionally something about the message or the beep of the message causes the system to think it has reached a live person and begins playing the message. When the message is left, it only leaves part of the message. You can call back the 800-566-9780 for a Weather Warning message or the 866-419-5000 for an Alert message and receive the entire message. This does not happen often.

9. Why does my phone ring once and hang up? It has called me twice and won't let me answer it.
If you have a ring tone, which plays a song instead of ringing, the system will interpret this as an Operator Intercept and hang up, only to retry the number. There are two options. You can remove the ring back tone or you can contact your cell phone provider and request that the phone number 800-566-9780 for Weather Warning and 866-419-
5000 for CodeRED Alerts be bypassed by this feature.

10. Can I sign up more than one telephone or cell phone per address?
Yes. There is only space for two phone numbers, but you can register again with more phone numbers linked to the same address.

11. I have another address that I want to receive alerts for. Can I do this on the same telephone?
No. You can only have one address registered per phone. Suggestion for those that have a second home or address in the The Hastings/Adams County 911 Center area is to have one address on one phone and the second address on another phone. i. e. landline phone and cell phone or two separate cell phones. (You would need to remember which address is linked to which phone)

12. What is the cost of this service?
This service is free to the residents and businesses in Adams County.

13. If I do not live in Adams County can I still receive this service? No. You need to have an address linked to Adams County as in another home or a business. There are other counties outside of Adams County providing the CodeRED service or similar types of notifications, but you would need to sign up in the county where you reside.

14. I signed up for text messaging but am only receiving voice messages for the Weather Alerts.
CodeRED is not currently sending text messages for Weather Alerts. It will be possible in the future but at this time they do not feel text messages are sent as fast as voice messages.

15. What if I'm not home to receive the alert message?
The CodeRED dialing system will leave the emergency alert message on your voicemail or answering machine. If you do not have voicemail or an answering machine, the dialer will attempt your phone number 3 times. This would be a great reason to register your work or cell phone number as a back-up number.

16. If I register my cell phone would I receive the warning where I am located at the time of the call?
No. The warning would be for the location of the address that is registered.

17. Can businesses participate?
Yes. In fact The Hastings/Adams County 911 Center and Adams County Emergency Management encourage businesses to register to receive the emergency alerts. On the registration page there is a place to check if this is a business. Please note that emergency calls can only be delivered to a direct dial number. Automated attendants will disrupt the process and calls will not be delivered.

18. Can TDD/TTY equipment for hearing impaired receive the calls?
Yes. When you register your number there is an option to enter the TDD/TTY information.

19. Why didn't I receive a call during the last storm?
When the National Weather Service puts out a Storm Warning and shows the polygon of the warning location, your address that you registered would need to be located inside the polygon to receive a call.

20. Will I receive Blizzard or Winter Weather warnings?
No. The Weather warnings you can sign up for are Tornado, Severe Thunderstorms or Flood Warnings.