City Council voted to approve an agreement between the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s management office and the Stillwater Emergency Management Agency to use the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System, or IPAWS.
“As a result of March 14, 2025, we looked at mitigation measures that would help us be better connected and communicate with our community,” said Rob Hill, director of emergency management for the City.
One option was to use IPAWS, Hill said.
The Oklahoma Highway Patrol and the Oklahoma Department of Public Safety have both used the system, and SEMA reached out to those agencies to learn how to implement the system in Stillwater.
Through IPAWS, SEMA can set up geofences, or virtual GPS-based boundaries, to trigger targeted automated actions.
The messages would notify people most at threat exactly who is sending the message, what the threat is and where SEMA wants residents to go in case of evacuation.
IPAWS would continually alert residents throughout the event and even after the event is over, Hill said.
The system would alert those most impacted but could also alert the entire community to avoid the area and let them know where shelters are located.
Traditional mass notification systems typically require residents to opt in, but with IPAWS, the City can send alerts directly to smart devices within an affected area — like Amber, Silver or Blue Alerts — that would ensure “faster, broader delivery of critical life-safety information when it is needed most,” City agenda documents read.
Recipients of IPAWS messages can turn off alerts in their phone if they so choose, Hill noted.
During the March 2025 wildfires, Stillwater public safety personnel informed citizens via radio, social media, local media outlets and direct field notifications, City agenda documents noted. Agencies coordinated with first responders quickly as conditions worsened.
But an information gap still existed during the unfolding event, as some residents didn’t get evacuation information until after the wildfires were within Stillwater City limits and moving rapidly.
“The event also highlighted limitations in our ability to communicate immediate life-safety messaging at the speed and scale required by a fast-moving wildfire. Not all residents were reached simultaneously, and message distribution relied heavily on platforms that require opt-in participation or internet access,” City documents note. “Rapidly shifting fire behavior outpaced some notification methods, and the absence of fully integrated, redundant alerting systems limited our capacity to deliver targeted evacuation orders and urgent protective instructions in real time.”
To address the gaps, the agreement provides the City with access to IPAWS through its existing mass notification platform, RAVE.
“This will expand our ability to send Wireless Emergency Alerts, activate the Emergency Alert System through television and radio, and broadcast through NOAA Weather Radio using Civil Emergency Messages,” City agenda documents read.
A one-time fee of $1,200 will activate the component in the RAVE system and will be paid from SEMA’s operations and maintenance budget.
SEMA’s current notification system won’t go away, Hill said, but that system is still opt-in and “can’t be forced on people.”
“I think there were a lot of folks in town last year who …. were surprised that we didn’t already have (this system),” Mayor Will Joyce said. “We all learned a little bit about how these systems work, and (the City’s current system is) not something that is automatic.”
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