Horseshoe Bay residents can sign up for emergency, city services alerts
City of Horseshoe Bay officials are urging residents to join the CivicReady messaging system, which communicates important information from the city by email, text, and voice.
City Manager Stan Farmer said CivicReady was used during the winter storm Feb. 15-18 to keep residents informed of important information, including road closures, weather impacts, and boil water notices. The city also uses the system during other emergencies, including wildfires and floods.
Residents can sign up through the city of Horseshoe Bay website.
The system allows people to chose which types of messages they receive, including from police, fire, City Council, planning and zoning, utility, street and construction, and bid posting.
Farmer wants residents to at least sign up for emergency alerts and community news because that’s how his team communicated about weather-caused issues during the storm.
Out of 7,200 full-time and part-time residents, only 2,257 receive the emergency alerts, while 1,516 receive community news.
“We send most messages out as community news or emergency alerts,” Farmer said. “Whether a full-time resident, part-time resident, or caretaker of a resident living in Horseshoe Bay, the City Council and staff encourage all to sign up for this wonderful communication tool.”
Residents can also choose how they receive alerts and notifications whether by email, text, voice, or any combination, Farmer said.
“Choosing text or voice delivery is particularly important because, if internet service is lost, one can still receive messages by cellphone unless cell towers experience problems, too,” he added.
Residents also can sign up for WarnCentralTexas, which sends out regional alerts from the Capital Area Council of Governments.
Just like CivicReady, authorities will send messages via email, text, phone, and mobile app.
“This is strictly an emergency notification system that acts like a reverse 911 system, sending phone calls out to a phone number(s) you designate,” Farmer said. “Also, other government entities can use this tool, i.e., Llano or Burnet county, for their own emergency messages. This service was used during our recent storm to share information about drinking water distribution points in the city. It would also be relied upon in the event of tornados, floods, and evacuation events for example.”
Residents who need help signing up for either system can go to City Hall, 1 Community Drive in Horseshoe Bay, to speak to Information Technology Administrator Jules Martin or customer service clerk Elizabeth Palos. For information or assistance by phone, call Martin at 830-598-8741 ext. 230.
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We were signed up for this. Before whoever is in charge of communication pats themselves on the backs here is a factual time line:
2-15 – Received 1 sms “dont call 911 for power outages”
The next one wouldn’t be until the 17th.
We didnt have water at this point on thr 15th and our pipes on premise werent busted.
We called for two days the number to the water emergency (a number you are told to call by the answering system for the main utility dept.) received no answers and the voicemail was full.
During these two days dailytrib writes a piece about horseshoe bay and points people to the same number that leads to the same full voicemail box.
2-17 – finally recieve and update from the city on the website and sms “hbay under a boil water notice”
From this point on they do keep sending updates.
However the 15th and 16th when we had no water and no communication is what we remeber.
We don’t see any acknowledgment of this blunder by anyone in any of the glowing articles in the hbay beacon/daily trib.