We use a variety of tools to warn you of severe weather or other hazardous conditions.  The tools that we employ will depend largely on the type of hazard that is present.  But of all our emergency warning tools, none is more misunderstood than our warning sirens. 

If you hear the sirens DO NOT call 9-1-1 for more information.  Go inside and turn on your local radio station,  local TV, or listen to your NOAA radio for further instructions.

When the sirens are activated, additional information will be provided as soon as possible on our local TV, radio, or NOAA radio system.  By calling 9-1-1, you may tie up the phone system, preventing someone with a true emergency from getting the potentially life-saving services that they need.

If you are inside and hear the sirens, stay inside!  The purpose of the emergency sirens is to notify those of us that are outside to seek shelter inside immediately.  Stay off the telephone, turn on your local radio or local TV station to get more information on the hazardous condition.  We currently have 4 cities with  warning sirens placed throughout the county.  To assure that our warning sirens are working the way they should, we test them according to the following schedule:

 The first Wenesday every month at 1:00 PM  we conduct a operational test.  This is just a very short activation of the sirens*.
 
* If we expect severe weather during these times, we will not activate the sirens but wait until the next clear day to do our tests.

In cooperation with the Nation Weather Service, we use the Emergency Alert System (EAS) to notify you of a number of hazards, not just severe weather.  The best way for you to receive these alerts is to purchase a NOAA All Hazards Radio and keep it in your home.  Businesses should get one too.  These radios will sound an alarm and automatically present the warning information for our area.

In addition, to the EAS, we work with the local media to get other announcements out to the public including the weather crawls you often see at the bottom of your TV screens.

Another very important tool utilized by Navarro County OEM is CODE-RED Reverse 911. This system allows the Office of Emergency Management to make hundreds of rapid calls to your residence if there is a imminent threat of hazard that allows us to warn for or give crucial information such as evacuation orders.

To read more about CodeRed go to http://www.coderedweb.com/ .