Public safety officials across ten Texas counties came together Aug. 23 to launch the first Central Texas regional community preparedness initiative for public awareness.
WarnCentralTexas.org is a free public service for residents living and working in Bastrop, Blanco, Burnet, Caldwell Fayette Lee, Llano, Travis, Williamson and Hays counties.
The service, created by the Capital Area Council of Governments (CAPCOG), is meant to alert users to critical emergency events like evacuations from floods, fires and public health threats.
According to a CAPCOG press release, the new alert system would operate much like the federal government Amber alerts system, where a message is sent to registered phone numbers immediately during an emergency.
“WarnCentralTexas.org is a separate system, and a critical tool for local first responders to reach the affected people during an emergency,” the press release stated.
BE INFORMED: Register your number at warncentraltexas.org
Eric Carter, director of Homeland Security with CAPCOG, said in a statement those living in a 10-county region need to sign up if they want to receive alerts on their mobile devices.
“Registering through WarnCentralTexas.org adds your line to the notification system used by all the county emergency management agencies in our region,” Carter said. “Some communities and school districts also have notification systems in place to meet local needs.”
Carter added that the WarnCentralTexas.org system is “used by many communities across our region to issue emergency alerts.
The system is also complementary to other alerting systems in use by schools or businesses or government agencies to alert citizens during an emergency situation, Carter said.
Alerts issued through WarnCentralTexas are initiated by public safety officials, which are then disseminated to residents.
Buda Fire Chief Clay Huckaby supports the system and said “it’s very imperative” to get as many people signed up as it will be the first source of information for residents.
Huckaby said residents could register their home phone numbers in addition to cell numbers and family numbers that will use a person’s number to identify their location and proximity to any critical emergency event in the area.
“This is the kind of standard everyone is going to and this would be the best route for early warning notification,” Huckaby said.
