Parish under moderate risk for severe weather

Lincoln Parish is now in the moderate risk category for some sort of severe weather today, according to the latest update from the National Weather Service in Shreveport.

All modes of severe weather will be possible mostly later tonight, with potential high-end threats, including tornadoes and damaging winds, in play. The strongest weather is expected to arrive in the Ruston-Lincoln Parish area around midnight and exit the area by 2 a.m. Friday.

Parish Director of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness Kip Franklin urged Ruston residents not now signed up for the city’s free CodeRed emergency notification system to do so by visiting the city’s website, ruston.org.

CodeRed sends automatic notices via text, phone call or email.

With the end of the Alert FM system, non-Ruston residents don’t have a warning system tailored to them, however Franklin said he plans to push out notices using FEMA’s Integrated Public Alert & Warning System (IPAWS) that’s supposed to be able to be automatically received by most cell phones without any accompanying app or registration.