Guardian Line is how WxAlerts reaches people by phone call and text: NWS warnings, and storm alerts from Tornado Risk (high) up. When a storm alert and a warning arrive together, they come as one call. It needs the Supporter plan.
For someone who may not act on a warning alone, a parent, a grandparent, someone with a disability, Guardian Line can also turn a phone number into a check on them. That is what the rest of this page covers.
What a call does
- Opens as a life-safety call and greets them by first name.
- Plays the warning in full.
- Asks “Do you need any help?” They can say okay or press 1, or say help or press 2. A plain yes or no is asked again, so it is never taken the wrong way.
- If they are okay, the call tells them to stay in their safe place until the warning ends and keep a radio or TV on for local weather updates, says we will keep watching the storm for them, and says goodbye. If they need help, it tells them their Safety Person is being told right now and to call 911 if they are hurt or in immediate danger.
- If nobody answers, calls again five minutes later.
Every call ends with the number to call to stop these calls or ask a question. You can hear a sample call on the Guardian Line page.
Their Safety Person hears how each call went: safe, needs help, unclear, or no answer. The Safety Person is you or another text or email contact on your account.
Set it up
- On your account, add their number as a phone call channel, or find it if it is already there.
- Choose Add to Guardian Line.
- Pick why they need it, the first name the call should use, how you are related, and their Safety Person.
- Read the agreement, tick I agree, and choose Save and call to confirm.
We call them first to confirm. Warning calls start only after they say yes. If two confirmation calls go unanswered, the line is paused. Once you have checked the number and told them to expect our calls, Approve line on its row turns it on.
Every Guardian Line number is listed under Guardian Line on your account, with its status and Safety Person. View in Guardian Line on a channel takes you to its row.
Change the number
Choose Edit number on its row. The places, greeting and Safety Person stay; the new number gets its own confirmation call before warnings go to it.
Stopping calls
Open Settings on its row and choose Turn off to go back to ordinary warning calls. The person called can also stop calls themselves by calling the number the alerts come from.