Sunnyvale Council hears overhaul of emergency management: new sirens, IPAWS alerts, StormReady designation

Sunnyvale Town Manager Jeff Jones and Fire/EM staff told the Town Council on June 9 that the town has completed several major upgrades to its emergency-management systems and is moving from planning toward public-facing preparedness work.

The report said the town replaced an aging outdoor warning siren network, added a siren to close a coverage gap near Jobson Park, and installed an automated control system (Command 1) linked to National Weather Service warnings so sirens can sound for tornadoes, hail over 2.5 inches or winds over 80 mph without manual activation.

Jeff Jones, town manager, said the new system also retains manual activation capability, noting that "we now have Command 1 control center, which is automatically activated. It's tied directly to the National Weather Service forecasting." He added staff could still manually trigger the sirens if they choose to do so for other local thresholds.

Brian Davis, assistant emergency management coordinator and fire inspector, told the council that Sunnyvale has been named a StormReady community by the National Weather Service, a designation that recognizes local planning and warning capability. "The program encourages community leaders and emergency managers to take a proactive approach to hazardous weather by providing clear-cut guidelines to improve their hazardous weather operations," Davis said.

Staff described a recently completed draft Emergency Management Manual (a town-level counterpart to Dallas County's plan), a new fixed Emergency Operations Center in the fire station, and a continuity-of-operations plan compiled with department directors. The manual will be hosted on a virtual platform and include activation triggers, role checklists and QR-code access for responders in the field.

Council members were briefed on communications upgrades. The town is working to integrate its CivicReady mass-notification system with IPAWS (Integrated Public Alert and Warning System) so officials can send cell‑broadcast alerts to every device inside a drawn polygon, even if residents have not separately subscribed. Staff said IPAWS enrollment is a multi-step FEMA process and training requirement but that the town is close and hopes to have it in place before SunnyFest on June 28. When fully active, CivicReady messages will also post automatically to Facebook, Instagram and Nextdoor.

Staff described recent exercises: regional tabletop drills (including a cyber-attack scenario), a point-of-distribution exercise for large-scale supply distribution, active-shooter tabletops with Sunnyvale ISD and Baylor Scott & White Sunnyvale, and plans for a weather-event tabletop and a full-scale exercise later this year. The town is also exploring drones for damage assessments and local weather stations for real-time data.

Councilmembers praised the work. Several said the July 2024 windstorm exposed shortfalls that the department has since addressed and that improved public alerts, siren coverage and EOC readiness should reduce uncertainty in future events.

Staff said the emergency-management pages on the town website will be expanded this year with public preparedness guidance, and that checklists and additional training for EOC positions will be finalized before larger exercises.