By Allan Jamail
Galena Park, TX. – February 14, 2023, the City of Galena Park will use advanced voice messaging technology to warn large masses of the citizenry.
Mayor Esmeralda Moya and Fire Chief Tom Ehlers teamed up with Precinct 2 County Commissioner Adrian Garcia to revolutionize the antiquated siren system of the city.
According to Chief Ehlers the city obtained most of the funds for the new systems, costing over one hundred thousand dollars from Precinct 2 County Commissioner Adrian Garcia. The remainder of the cost was obtained from Harris County’s Economic Alliance and Exxon Mobil Pipeline.
Their old worn out siren hasn’t worked in over ten years the Chief Ehlers said, as is the case in many other cities. A siren sound gets the public’s attention but people don’t know what the emergency is about, until now.
The city has installed in three separate locations these emergency broadcasting warning systems. Each system is mounted high up on telephone poles, which include siren and voice0producing speakers. One system is installed on 3rd Street north of the fire station on 2nd Street, another in Galena Manor, and another in Woodland Acres subdivisions.
If there’s a threat to the public’s safety, regardless of the time of the day or night, the traditional loud siren sound will first alert the public, followed by verbal messages explaining what the warning concerns, such as a nearby tornado, or chemical leak from railroad tank car or other vehicle. The messages will be announced in both English and Spanish.
In small cities, this is one of the most advanced ways of alerting masses of the public of emergency conditions. All cities should take advantage of this technology, most especially small cities.
The system’s electronics are in the police station, so if there’s a need to warn the public, the communications officer can activate the system via wireless technology. The software has pre-recorded messages, and it also has the ability to record special custom messages if needed. The fire chief also has the ability to activate the system using his cell phone. He said all the hardware is installed and hopefully the software will be completed soon.
The messages can tell citizens to shelter in place or evacuate, and also give them instructions to go to the city’s Facebook page and or website for additional instructions.
The Alertus Company specializes in mass notifications emergency warning systems. For more information go to: www.alertus.com