SAN ANGELO, TX -- The San Angelo Fire Department has successfully transitioned from warning sirens to digital alerts, which can relate detailed information about a host of threats to every phone within Tom Green County.
According to City of San Angelo Public Information Officer Anthony Wilson, the warnings will include specifics of the threat and instructions on how to protect oneself, whether from severe weather, an active shooter, a wildfire or any other imminent danger. The warnings can also alert the public of instances that affect large numbers of citizens, such as a major water main break.
The emergency alerts are similar to Amber alerts received on cell phones. When activated by the SAFD, alerts will be sent to every cell phone and landline within the area designated – whether a neighborhood or the entire county. Calls to land lines will continue until answered, offering detailed information about the threat and instructions. No registration is needed to receive the warnings.
The alerts will also be broadcast on radio stations, television channels and weather radios. The City of San Angelo and the San Angelo Police Department will also post them on their websites and social media.
“These emergency alerts will keep the public safer by providing greater reach, targeted messaging and more detailed information than the outdoor sirens ever could,” Fire Chief Brian Dunn said. “I am convinced of that. If not, I never would have sought to replace the sirens with modern technology.”
Beginning at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, March 28, Dunn and Tracy Piatt-Fox, the SAPD public information officer, will answer questions about the new system on the City of San Angelo-Public Information Facebook page. That program will be posted on the Facebook page and on the City’s YouTube channel, and will be rebroadcast on SATV, Suddenlink channel 17.
The criteria for sending alerts for severe weather remains the same: sustained winds (versus gusts) of at least 58 mph, hail at least 1 inch in diameter (the size of a quarter), and/or a tornado warning. Information about severe weather comes from the National Weather Service or a trained weather spotter in the field. The criteria were established by agreement of the Tom Green County judge and San Angelo’s mayor and city manager, per NOAA recommendations.
The decision to issue an alert remains with the SAFD’s on-duty battalion chief, the police or fire chief, the assistant fire chief for operations, the emergency management coordinator, or the city manager.
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Comments
I know you want to hear positive about the new warning system. I am sorry, I won’t say positive. Not everyone has a cell phone. Some don’t even have land lines. We have both, but we didn’t get the land line notice at all. We got cell phone alert 30 minutes after the storm. Last week, we did not get a warning on the storm. Several people can’t afford phones. What happens then?
Go ahead with your phone alerts....but there needs a secondary program for the ones the phone alerts don’t help or work. Come to think of it, I have never had a land line phone alert.
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Permalinka TV. they have been around for a few years now. They have news and weather on there you know.
This weather was talked about and predicted since the weekend before.
Also a weather radio that tunes to the National Weather Service is a hell of a lot better than those 1960 sirens.
If you can look outside and see and feel winds of 82 mph like I did it will make you think you might want to get to cover.
Check it out.
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PermalinkDepending on a TV is a moronic statement. Sirens are not an outdated technology, only the type of sirens that San Angelo has hung onto forever. They could have been replaced at least twice over the years, but our dipstick elected officials have decided to spend our taxes on who knows what. There are many, reliable replacement systems that should be selected as the primary means of notification & Nixle is free, so that could be secondary. This isn’t rocket science!
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PermalinkGet real. Who was awake at 0500 with their TV on?
Granted, the weather was indeed talked about and predicted in the days leading up to it, but there was literally ZERO warning available for people who were sleeping during the time the NIXLE, Landline, and NOAA Weather Radio alerts should've been waking people up. NIXLE was quiet. My landline phone never rang. The NOAA Weather Radio station doesn't even come up on the Motorola NOAA Weather Radio my wife bought from Wal-Mart, and checking the NOAA website for the frequency information has never shown the station to be actually online all the times I've checked.
I woke up on my own, checked the radar on my computer, and caught the live stream from KSAN and KLST via Facebook. Even after their lights went out, they continued to live stream on battery power, all the while with the very same weather event they're warning us about bearing down on them (they always go the extra mile during these times - kudos to KSAN and KLST).
But they are not the City of San Angelo, who are responsible for public safety and the early warning systems required to help with that cause. The ball has been dropped by COSA so many times on so many issues that have wound up costing us millions in tax-payer dollars. How much more money or how many lives will it take for accountability to come into play? They pulled the tornado warning sirens before NIXLE was a proven system... when in actuality, both systems are needed (the sirens for initial alert and those without smart phones, and NIXLE for passing information). Even then, still not a perfect solution, but still way better than waking up to the experience of your roof being forcefully removed by the weather event you should've been warned about.
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Permalinkyou need to do is get a Midland NOAA weather radio. I just bought my second one after the speaker quit after about 20 years.
I received several NIXLE alerts on my cell phone although none on my landline this time.
I turned on TV at 0230 or 0300 and they were on the air.
I don't sleep a lot when these type of storms are predicted by all sources national and local.
Our sirens have not worked reliably in years. Most places are or already have done away with them as they were put in service as Air Raid sirens in case of enemy attack.
I doubt their is even any "new" systems to be installed.
Saturday night was not a night to go to bed for a great nights sleep and expect an outdated siren to maybe wake you up.
And that's another thing, many are not woke up by them anyway.
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