Beaumont Emergency Management Coordinator Shaquena Nobles told the City Council that the city's evacuation annex is under review as part of the city's emergency operations plan and emphasized that the plan is “all hazard” and available on the city's website.

The presentation explained why the city coordinates with the National Hurricane Center, the regional National Weather Service office in Lake Charles, the Texas Division of Emergency Management and neighboring jurisdictions when a storm approaches, and urged residents to evacuate during voluntary evacuations rather than waiting for mandatory orders.

Nobles said the city uses multiple warning systems in combination — the Emergency Alerting System (EAS), Wireless Emergency Alerts via IPAWS (the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System) and the regional Southeast Texas Alerting Network (STAN) — and that STAN is the platform Beaumont's Office of Emergency Management uses to push warnings directly to local residents.

"This plan is listed on the city's website," Nobles said, and she repeatedly urged residents to register with STAN so the Office of Emergency Management can verify delivery and help troubleshoot missed alerts.

Nut graf: Nobles framed the briefing as an effort to clarify how citizens are warned and why the city has been cautious about reinstalling outdoor sirens: modern digital alerts reach people indoors and on phones, while outdoor sirens add redundancy but have limits and costs that the city must weigh.

Most of Nobles's summary described how the federal and regional systems work together to reach residents by TV, radio and cell phone. She said the outdoor siren proposals reviewed would provide redundancy "for individuals that are outdoors," but she stressed limitations and industry norms.

"Outdoor sirens are meant solely for outdoor warnings," Nobles said, adding that industry practice limits siren use to hazards tied to very high winds and that many vendors identify a rough trigger threshold of 70 miles per hour.

Nobles told council members that a previous Storm Sirens proposal estimated about $1,300,000 to install roughly 29 sirens across Beaumont, with an additional estimated maintenance cost of $30,000 to $40,000 per year. She said sirens typically have a 25–35 year lifespan but — given local historical storm frequency — might be used only once or twice over that lifespan.

Council members asked clarifying questions about how the systems interact (EAS banners and tones on broadcast media, IPAWS alerts to cell phones, STAN push messages to enrolled residents) and about whether sirens would be audible indoors. Nobles reiterated that indoor audibility is inconsistent because construction materials vary, and that outdoor sirens are a last step in a layered warning strategy.

Ending: Nobles closed by urging residents to register for STAN alerts, keep family evacuation plans, and take voluntary evacuation notices seriously because declared mandatory evacuations typically funnel traffic north on designated TxDOT evacuation routes.

Speakers: Shaquena Nobles, Emergency Management Coordinator (government). Mayor Roy West (Mayor). Council members who asked questions during the presentation are listed in the speakers array below.