How Does Automated Outage Texting Work?
If your cell phone number is on file, your Co-op will automatically text you when a power outage is confirmed at the location tied to your cell number. You’ll also receive a text when your power is restored and may receive other updates about the outage.
More enhancements to Outage Texting are coming soon!
- If you have more than one location tied to your phone number, you may not be able to receive automatic text messages for all locations/accounts at this time. Our developers are working on this enhancement, and we expect that functionality to be available soon. For now, visit our Outage Map for details on all outages.
The Automated Outage Texting system supports the following prompts when texted to the Co-op’s outage phone number: (406) 751-4449:
- Text OUT to report a power outage.
- Text STATUS to request current outage status.
- Text ISSUE to report a different issue with our electric equipment that’s not causing a power outage, such as a power blink or damaged electrical equipment.
- Text STOP or QUIT to opt out of all future outage text updates from Flathead Electric Cooperative.
- Text FLATHEAD to opt back in to outage text updates.
Questions?
Here are a few of the most frequently asked questions about Automated Outage Texts — including directions on how to log into your online account or My Co-op app to update your cell phone number.
Outage Text FAQs
You can tie 3 cell phone numbers to a location. However, if you have multiple locations under one account, the cell phone numbers can only be tied to one location. Our developers are aware that this is a problem for some of our members and are working on a solution!
Visit our website. You’ll need your username and password to access your account. If you’ve forgotten those, you can reset them by clicking on the lock icon below the login button.
Under Settings, choose Contact Methods:
Then, you can check your cell phone number and add, activate, edit, or delete as desired.
First, you’ll need to download the app if you don’t already have it. Visit the Google Play store for Android phones and the App Store for Apple phones to get this free app.
iOS (Apple) Users
Android Users
Open the app.
Then, to update your cell phone number, click three buttons in the bottom right corner:
Select Settings
Select Contact Methods
Verify that the phone number(s) associated with your account are up-to-date. If you need to edit them, use the Edit button in the top right corner.
Yes! First, check the outage map to see if your outage is already verified. If it’s not, text OUT to the Co-op’s outage number (406) 751-4449 to report your outage.
After you receive an outage text from your Co-op, simply reply STOP or QUIT to unsubscribe.
You can opt back in to text messaging. Using the cell phone/number that you unsubscribed from, text the word "Flathead" to (406) 751-4449.
Still have questions? Contact us! We’re always happy to help.