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Central Texas Officials Encourage Residents to Sign Up for Emergency Notification System

WarnCentralTexas.org is an alert system that allows first responders to more easily reach the public during emergencies.

(TNS) -- In case of disaster, please leave your name and number.

That’s the message from authorities across Central Texas on Wednesday, as they encouraged residents to sign up for WarnCentralTexas.org, an alert system in place for past few years that allows first responders to more easily reach the public during emergencies.

“At the 2011 (Bastrop) Complex fire, the line between a disaster and a full-scale emergency vanished in a heartbeat,” said Bastrop County Judge Paul Pape, referring to the deadly wildfire that killed two and destroyed more than 1,600 homes. “Had we had WarnCentralTexas up and running and very active at that time, we would have been more successful in evacuating tens of thousands of people more efficiently.”

Officials pointed to Tropical Depression Harvey, which could bring torrential rains to Central Texas this weekend, as the latest example of why residents should register to get emergency alerts.

Roughly 60,000 people have signed up so far to receive alerts on their cellphones or by email. Officials hope their September campaign to encourage Central Texas residents to register will triple that number to 180,000 by the end of the month.

The Capital Area Council of Governments — a coalition of officials from 10 counties, including Travis, Hays, Williamson, Bastrop and Caldwell — spends less than $90,000 a year to provide the service to local officials, which is paid for by 911 fees.

Emergency officials have used it for the last few years to reverse-dial land lines. The system also allows officials to call or text cellphones or blast out email messages — but only to people who have registered.

Unlike with land lines, there’s no master directory of local cellphone numbers or email addresses that officials can access in case of an emergency. That’s becoming an increasingly bigger problem as more people ditch the traditional house phone and depend solely on mobile devices and computers.

“Our goal (with the registration drive) is keeping people informed when there are hazards that can affect them,” said Eric Carter, director of homeland security for the capital area council. “Be in the know when things go wrong.”

The system allows local governments across Central Texas to alert residents about natural threats such as wildfires, floods and storms, as well as public safety concerns, such as a deployment of a local police SWAT team or missing person alerts. The messages are targeted to addresses the users select.

For instance, Austin residents got four alerts last month about a missing elderly person, while San Marcos residents received one alert about a water system outage.

Officials on Wednesday also assured Central Texans that their data will be safe and secure.

“We use strict security measures to safeguard all data sets that are used in the system,” said Juan Ortiz, director of Austin’s Homeland Security and Emergency Management Office. “Local governments do not sell, trade, lease, loan or provide the data to third-party users.”

©2017 Austin American-Statesman, Texas Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.