Mark,
As I remember, the alert box is handled by the css.
Here's what I have in my css to handle the Environment Canada alerts.
.advisoryBoxnoactive {
color: black;
font-size: 12px;
text-align: center;
background-color: #F7F7CE;
margin: 0 0 0 0;
padding: .5em 0em .5em 0em;
border: 1px dashed rgb(34,70,79);
}
.advisoryBox {
color: black;
font-size: 12px;
text-align: center;
background-color: #FFCC00;
margin: 0 0 0 0;
padding: .5em 0em .5em 0em;
border: 1px dashed rgb(34,70,79);
}
#main-copy .advisoryBox a {
color: blue;
}
#main-copy .advisoryBox a:hover {
color: blue;
background-color: inherit;
text-decoration: underline;
}
.warningBox {
color: white;
font-size: 13px;
text-align: center;
background-color: #CC0000;
margin: 0 0 0 0;
padding: .5em 0em .5em 0em;
border: 1px dashed rgb(255,255,255);
}
#main-copy .warningBox a {
color: white;
}
#main-copy .warningBox a:hover {
color: white;
background-color: inherit;
text-decoration: underline;
}
.tornadowarningBox {
color: white;
font-size: 13px;
text-align: center;
background-color: #CC0000;
margin: 0 0 0 0;
padding: .5em 0em .5em 0em;
border: 1px dashed rgb(255,255,255);
}
#main-copy .tornadowarningBox a {
color: white;
}
#main-copy .tornadowarningBox a:hover {
color: white;
background-color: inherit;
text-decoration: underline;
}
.endedBox {
color: white;
font-size: 13px;
text-align: center;
background-color: #66CC66;
margin: 0 0 0 0;
padding: .5em 0em .5em 0em;
border: 1px dashed rgb(255,255,255);
}
#main-copy .endedBox a {
color: white;
}
#main-copy .endedBox a:hover {
color: white;
background-color: inherit;
text-decoration: underline;
}
.specialBox {
color: black;
font-size: 13px;
text-align: center;
background-color: #EEC400;
margin: 0 0 0 0;
padding: .5em 0em .5em 0em;
border: 1px dashed rgb(34,70,79);
}
#main-copy .specialBox a {
color: blue;
}
#main-copy .specialBox a:hover {
color: blue;
background-color: inherit;
text-decoration: underline;
}
My version of the top warning script puts the text into a <div>
<div class="warningBox">using the css class of the type of warning.
Hope this might help.

George