Austin Emergency Management outlines overhaul of city—s emergency plans; committee approves prior minutes

Acting Chair of the Austin City Council Public Safety Committee on Nov. 3, 2025, approved the minutes of the Sept. 22, 2025 committee meeting before receiving a briefing from Austin Emergency Management on a citywide overhaul of emergency plans.

An Austin Emergency Management staff member told the committee the work includes a new City of Austin Emergency Operations Basic Plan as the foundational document, 21 emergency support functions aligned to the National Response Framework, hazard-specific annexes for threats such as wildfire, winter storm, flooding and active threats, and functional annexes that cover actions such as alerts, evacuations and shelter operations. "We're the ones that are committed to doing the legwork, the research, the homework to bring different organizations together...and make sure that we have a one team, one fight approach," the staff member said.

Why it matters: Staff said the changes are intended to make plans actionable during incidents rather than merely procedural. The city will set measurable "capability targets" for functions such as public information and warning and mass care; those targets will be used to identify gaps and guide grant requests, contracts or mutual-aid arrangements so Austin can meet performance objectives during a disaster.

What staff described: The briefing laid out several linked elements:

- The basic emergency operations plan will describe authorities, coordination…