Houston leaders discuss emergency alerts in wake of deadly central Texas flood

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- For the past two weeks, the emergency alert system in Kerr County has been picked apart.

Who knew what and when and what could have been done differently to save more people? Those are now the questions being asked about local emergency response here in Houston.

Emergency push alerts on your phone are meant to keep you informed on emergencies near you. But when you live in a state as big as Texas and regularly get notifications for emergencies happening hours away from you, it can be tempting to turn them off.

"They need to go back to the authorizing authorities or entities that are doing it, and they need to give some refresher training on the need to send a statewide alert if there is an Amber Alert in Amarillo," Brian Mason with the Houston Office of Emergency Management said.

Now, the Houston Office of Emergency Management says it hopes its alert system, which works on a more local level, will be appealing to the public by only sending you notifications on something happening in the Houston area.

The challenge with getting people to use the service? You need to opt in. Alert Houston is the city's alerting agency, but the OEM says only about 5% of the city's population has signed up, though they've seen a recent and noticeable uptick.

"On July 4th, when the event happened in Kerr County, we had about 75 people sign up that day," Mason said.

Still, the city said the key is to get people to sign up before disaster, not after.

To incentivize the public? The city said by opting in, you'll only get the alerts you need. Since August 2024, Alert Houston has sent five push alerts related to three events: the winter storm, a prescribed burn, and a severe thunderstorm.

If you do opt in to Alert Houston, city leaders still want you to keep all phone alerts on so you can know about chemical leaks, storms, and other hazards that could impact your life. The automatic alerts built into your phone have additional features like clickable links, Spanish translation, and do not require you to opt in.

Another difficulty emergency alerts face is their dependency on cell service, which often is worse or gone completely during and after large storms. Some council members at Monday's meeting encouraged more use of emergency radios at home.

You can sign up for the Alert Houston system through the city of Houston web page.

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