(David Gomez, News Anchor-DRB Media Communications Digital News)
The Texas Division of Emergency Management requested that cities and counties across the state participate in a coordinated Emergency Alert System drill. Danny Barrera has the story.
Odessa, Texas/April 5, 2026- On Thursday, April 2nd, the City of Odessa and Ector County joined agencies statewide in conducting the Emergency Alert System test. The drill was designed to ensure that communication systems are functioning properly and that critical alerts can be delivered quickly and effectively during emergencies.
(Oscar Menchaca, Assistant Chief of Emergency Management-City of Odessa, Texas)
“The EAS system. Basically, you had to either be by a radio and listening to the radio or watching your regular TV channels in order for you to get that message where the system that we’re using is called IPAWS, it’s integrated public alerting and warning system. It actually sends to all those things. So, you’ll get if you notice today you got a wireless emergency alert over your cell phone. Sometimes you may have received multiple of those. Then you also received or if you were watching TV, you may have noticed that. And then some radio stations also transmitted that warning message as well. And then there’s a possibility of also distributing that message over Non-weather emergency radio as well.”
The goal of the local Emergency Management authorities for the City of Odessa and Ector County is to reduce the time it takes to activate the Emergency Alert System and deliver critical information to the community.
(Esperanza Gochicoa, Emergency Management Coordinator-Ector County, Texas)
“One of the reasons why we really wanted to make sure this was working was the winter storm. That would have been very helpful. Um, you know, to send out alerts to our citizens about shelters and updates and how the weather was looking. Um, as well as last year’s pleasant farms, um, the microburst disaster, that was another one that we probably could have. Um, sent out an alert once we found out. So, knowing that, um, we can now provide those answers to our citizens, um, that’s, that’s what helps us rest assured that we’re doing what we can.”
The system is web-based and can be activated quickly from a cell phone, iPad, or laptop, allowing officials to respond faster during emergencies.
For DRB Media Communications Digital News, Danny Barrera.
(David Gomez, News Anchor-DRB Media Communications Digital News)
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