TYLER COUNTY – A statewide emergency alert system is set to go off Thursday, April 2.
Across the state, a planned drill is on the books, according to the Texas Division of Emergency Management (TDEM). Sirens and drills will go off, which, according to TDEM, builds readiness before disasters strike.
“Regular training and testing of public warning systems builds readiness before disaster strikes and is an important component of community safety,” said TDEM Chief Nim Kidd.
The test of local warning systems, according to a TDEM news release, is part of the agency’s commitment to working with Texas communities to prepare for, respond to, recover from and mitigate the effects of disasters and emergencies throughout the state.
When sirens and alerts go off on Thursday is somewhere between 10 a.m. and 12:30 p.m.
In Tyler County, the county’s emergency alert system communicates to residents via text messages and calls. Residents can register for the system (Genasys) at the website https://tylercountytx.genasys.com, or by calling the Office of Emergency Management at 409-331-0874. Residents will receive a text message about the drill, if registered with the Genasys system.
That system is used by the county’s emergency management team to alert and inform the public as to important information on events such as hurricanes, floods and fires.
The county’s assistant emergency management coordinator, Tonya Sheffield, said that the practice comes as a response to the disaster that occurred last year in the Texas Hill Country on July 4.
In that tragedy, floodwaters along the Guadalupe River rose rapidly, and at least 135 people were killed, and 117 of them in Kerr County.
Sheffield said that officials “want to be able to alert individuals better than what happened with Kerrville.”
TDEM has requested that all participating organizations share with state emergency management officials an update after the drill’s completion with a summary, key takeaways and any details that might provide context about the success of the test.
