WarnCentralTexas.org Aims To Grow Self-Registration For Digital Warning System

WarnCentralTexas.org, a new web portal, connects Central Texans with a way to stay informed about disastrous events that could affect their neighborhood. By registering their cellphone numbers and email addresses through a service provided at WarnCentralTexas.org, residents and visitors can protect their family, property and selves.

The website allows those who live and frequent Bastrop, Blanco, Burnet, Caldwell, Fayette, Hays, Lee, Llano, Travis, and Williamson counties to register their emails and cellphone numbers to an address or addresses in those counties. Local government emergency personnel, who are responding to incidents and disasters in their communities, can then send location-based, direct warnings via email, text message, and phone calls to WarnCentralTexas.org registered participants.

“If someone lives in Fayette County, works in Austin and has a vacation home in Wimberley, they can use WarnCentralTexas.org to register their cell number and email to each location,” said Eric Carter, the Capital Area Council of Governments Homeland Security Director who manages the tool on a regional level. “Emergency personnel in every CAPCOG community receive the same training on the system creating a standardized best practice of use throughout the region. If people register, we are prepared to notify them.”

CAPCOG has contracted a direct-contact emergency warning service for the region’s local governments for more than a decade. The tool has always been useful, but its ability to reach residents continues to decline as more and more people move to cellphone only households.

CAPCOG registers landlines into the system automatically using the 9-1-1 database, but cellphone numbers and email addresses have to be self-registered. About 45,000 cellphone users are currently self-registered.

The Capital Area Council of Governments in partnership with counties and municipalities in the 10-county region created WarnCentralTexas.org as a means to increase self-registration. Using one logo to brand outreach materials for the warning system will increase its recognition region wide.

“WarnCentralTexas.org provides an easy to remember web address that people can pass to neighbors,” Carter said. “Registration for the emergency warning system is becoming more important as the use of landline phones decrease, so protect your family, property, and self. Sign up for emergency warnings in your neighborhood by voice, text, or email.”

The WarnCentralTexas.org standardized branding allows every entity and organization in the region to create similar outreach materials and share them freely. WarnCentralTexas.org is maintained by CAPCOG so promoting self-registration for the notification system will have an everlasting web presence.

CAPCOG contracts the notification service for the entire region, while the vendor may change, WarnCentralTexas.org will not.

Stay informed — Register to get emergency warnings in your neighborhood by text, email or phone at WarnCentralTexas.org.

Protect your family, property and self. Sign up for emergency warnings in your neighborhood by voice, text or email.
Stay informed — Register to get emergency warnings in your neighborhood by text, email or phone. 

The Capital Area Council of Governments, governed by elected officials from the 10-county region it serves, has worked for more than 45 years as an advocate, planner, and coordinator on important regional issues. Programs and services related to public safety and emergency response, environmental planning, economic, community development, and the elderly are delivered at a regional level to leverage funding, maximize cooperation, and eliminate duplication. CAPCOG serves Bastrop, Blanco, Burnet, Caldwell, Fayette, Hays, Lee, Llano, Travis and Williamson counties.