Statewide drill April 2 for public warning systems

A mandated statewide local alert will be held next week to evaluate the functionality of the public warning tools available as directed by the Texas Division of Emergency Management.

The planned drill will be conducted from 10 a.m. through 12:30 p.m. Thursday, April 2. TDEM Young County Liaison Officer Jarod Cook spoke with the Graham City Council during their meeting Thursday, March 19 about the statewide test.

“The way this came about was we had a legislative session investigation after Kerrville, and we learned that a lot of the communities affected either didn't have a warning system or just did not activate it for whatever reason,” Cook said. “We had over 100 people lose their lives in that event so the state's really looked into that and said, ‘This can't happen again.’”

Cook said Jack County uses the Integrated Public Alert & Warning System (IPAWS) system which provides emergency and life-saving information to the public through mobile phones using wireless emergency alerts and recommended entities in Young County adopt a similar system.

For the test next week, Cook recommended that the city of Graham push alerts out to those listening on the scanner.

“I bet 80% of our population has a scanner and is listening. ...We need to put out a way to push this information out to the public,” he said. “Obviously, social media is a good way, but we need someone to trigger that so people know to go check your Facebook page to get this information.”

Fire Chief Jim Don Laurent said the city will be setting off the storm sirens and also putting out an announcement on dispatch to notify those listening of the alert. 

City Manager Eric Garretty said the city would research more about a reverse 911 system that could push notification to the public.

“I'm also talking to our regional planning group, and we'll talk to the county judge. We'll come back at some point and talk to you all about IPAWS, or some similar reverse 911 system, and put that on our agenda to figure out what the optimum solution is, and then funding for it,” Garretty said.

According to TDEM, the test is preparing communities to respond and recover from possible disasters and emergencies that could occur. 

“Regular training and testing of public warning systems builds readiness before disaster strikes and is an important component of community safety,” Texas Emergency Management Chief Nim 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.”

The test will also serve as a way to create consistency and unified coordination across the state. TDEM is requesting entities use their primary, alternative and contingency systems during the altering process next week.

“TDEM has requested participation from designated local alerting authorities, along with local emergency management programs, school districts, primary and secondary education programs, college and universities, councils of government, river authorities, sovereign tribal nations, law enforcement agencies and any other entities with emergency alerting capability,” a TDEM press release states.