Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Emergency Management topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Johnson County approves FEMA IPAWS connection to send targeted cell-phone alerts
Summary
Emergency Management won court approval to access FEMA’s Integrated Public Alert and Warning System; staff said it will be integrated with Everbridge and that complementary methods remain necessary in low‑coverage areas.
The Johnson County Commissioners Court approved a memorandum of agreement with the Federal Emergency Management Agency on Aug. 25 that allows the county to use the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System, known as IPAWS, to send emergency alerts to cell phones in defined areas.
Marshall Moore, Johnson County Emergency Management, told the court the MOA gives the county “the ability to send a message to a cell phone, any cell phone, without that individual having to register.” He said staff have completed much of the required FEMA training and that the county has integrated IPAWS into its Everbridge system so weather alerts can be automated.
Moore and commissioners noted limitations. Judge Monks and other members pointed to Ham Creek Park and portions of the Brazos River as areas where cell reception is poor and a text-based alert alone might not reach people. Moore said IPAWS is “just one additional tool in our toolbox” and emphasized the county’s ongoing work to use multiple notification channels, including NOAA radios and smartphone apps. He also said the county had worked since 2015 to request additional stream gauges from the Brazos River Authority to improve flood warning but that the authority had not installed additional gauges.
The court discussed public outreach: Moore said his office planned a citizen flood survey developed with the University of Massachusetts Amherst to measure how many residents have alerting enabled on their phones. He warned that many people disable some phone alerts and that the county cannot rely on a single notification method. The MOA was approved unanimously.
The court asked staff to coordinate a resolution supporting statewide flood-warning device funding and to work with the county judge’s office to draft the wording for a future meeting. Moore said access to IPAWS costs the county no additional funds and that the system can geocode alerts to narrow areas so that alerts reach every phone within a defined polygon.
The court recorded the motion to approve the MOA with FEMA and directed Emergency Management to complete onboarding and report on the system’s first operational uses.
