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Navajo Nation to implement emergency alert system

(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) Mary Benally spent a year of her childhood living on Butler Wash, a stretch of land about 20 miles long, east of Comb Ridge in Bears Ears National Monument. Mary, now 70, is a Utah Navajo and board member of Utah Dine Bikeyah, which advocated for the new national monument. Thursday, January 12, 2017.

Window Rock, Ariz. • Navajo Nation President Russell Begaye says he has signed a contract to purchase software to implement an emergency system for Amber Alerts, wildland fires, hazardous waste spills, weather notification and road closures.

The tribe had previously negotiated the use of New Mexico's, Arizona's and Utah's Amber Alert system.

However, the extra steps to run through all three states reportedly delayed notifications.

Once installed, the emergency alert system will officially be under the Navajo Division of Public Safety and managed by the Navajo Department of Emergency Management.

The software is expected to be deployed for use by the end of this month.

The tribe will have the capability to push alerts over radio, television and text messaging to all 11 counties that fall within the Navajo Nation's vast reservation borders.