April 2 State of Texas Alerting Test

The Texas Dept. of Emergency Management (TDEM) has scheduled an April statewide test of local alerting systems to evaluate effectiveness and functionality of these public warning tools. The State of Texas' test is scheduled between 10 am to 12:30 pm CDT on Thursday, April 2. Station newsrooms should already have seen a media release a few weeks ago on the event.

TDEM has requested participation from designated local alerting authorities, along with local emergency management programs, school districts, primary and secondary education programs, college and universities, councils of government, river authorities, sovereign tribal nations, law enforcement agencies, and any other entities with emergency alerting capability.

TDEM will utilize the Integrated Public Alerting & Warning System (IPAWS) and Wireless Electronic Alerts (WEA) as part of this test. The use of IPAWS means that stations' EAS ENDECS may activate depending on the type of event codes sent. The test will be clearly identified as such.

Questions? Contact TAB's Michael Schneider or call (512) 322-9944.