Angelina County alert system offers emergency information

ANGELINA COUNTY, Texas (KTRE) - A new emergency alert system went live on Mar. 1 and is meant to notify residents of Angelina County about issues impacting safety, such as tornadoes, gas leaks and other life-threatening hazards.

Ricky Conner with Angelina County Emergency Management said this system is something every Angelina County resident needs to be signed up for. The new program, GEM, stands for Genasys Emergency Management.

“We want to stress to them it’s important for us. Say we have to do a rescue somewhere, if they’re not signed up, we don’t know their address. We don’t know where they’re at. It just helps everybody. It helps us as much as it helps you,” said Conner.

He said the system is even able to send alerts to specific areas.

“We’ll send the message out, and we can block it off to any part of the county. Say, if something happens in the south end of the county, we can just block that section off and send a message to those particular people that are registered in that area,” said Conner.

Conner said GEM is something that can help keep citizens in the know.

“People want to know what’s going on, that’s one thing I always get, and the dispatch always gets: what’s going on here, what’s going on in Zavalla, what’s going on in Huntington. And, it’s our job to get them that information,” said Conner.

Angelina County residents are able to sign up for GEM online. Conner said it couldn’t be easier.

“Go to Angelina County dot net, scroll down, and you’ll see the GEM app. You click on that, it’ll take you directly to where you sign up. It’s pretty simple. You can fill it all out in less than a minute,” said Conner.

To sign up for the Angelina County emergency system, visit their website.

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