Texas emergency officials are putting the state’s public alert systems through their paces next week, and they’re asking a range of organizations to get involved.
HOUSTON — Texas emergency officials are putting the state’s public alert systems to the test this week to make sure they’ll work when it counts.
The Texas Division of Emergency Management announced a statewide drill scheduled for Thursday to check whether local warning systems are working effectively across the state. TDEM has already started reaching out to local partners to get them ready.
Texas Emergency Management Chief Nim Kidd said testing these systems regularly is a critical part of keeping communities safe.
“Regular training and testing of public warning systems builds readiness before disaster strikes and is an important component of community safety,” Kidd said.
“Conducting drills to reaffirm procedures, promote confidence in technological tools, and identify potential shortfalls is key to ensuring these systems operate with precision, accuracy, and timeliness when they are needed the most.”
To keep things consistent across the state, TDEM has set a designated testing window for local jurisdictions to run through their primary, backup, and contingency alert systems. The goal is to make sure each layer of the alerting process is functioning and ready to go.
TDEM is casting a wide net when it comes to who should participate. The agency is asking local emergency management programs, school districts, colleges and universities, councils of government, river authorities, sovereign tribal nations, law enforcement agencies, and any other organization with the ability to send emergency alerts to take part.
Once the drill wraps up, participating organizations are asked to send state officials a summary of how it went, including key takeaways and any details that shed light on how well their local system performed.
The drill is part of TDEM’s ongoing effort to help Texas communities prepare for, respond to, recover from, and reduce the impact of disasters and emergencies.
Fort Bend County and La Porte
If you live in FBC or La Porte, you won’t get the alert, but don’t be alarmed. It’s only because they completed their tests previously.
Fort Bend County Homeland Security & Emergency Management shared that its test was in November.
La Porte Office of Emergency Management said that its office runs frequent tests and this one isn’t needed.
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