Warning Systems Utilized by the City of Richardson
The City of Richardson's public warning system is much more than a network of outdoor sirens.
- Outdoor Warning Sirens - 22 warning sirens within the Richardson city limits.
- Emergency Notification System - rapid notification through calls, texts, and emails to provide vital life safety instructions.
- Emergency Alert System - national public warning system, required capability to address the American public through all TV and radio sources. The system can also be used by local authorities to deliver important messages such as AMBER (missing children) alerts and emergency weather information.
- NOAA All Hazards Weather Radio - purchase a NOAA radio to receive 24/7 weather and hazard information affecting the City of Richardson and other nearby areas directly from the National Weather Service office in Fort Worth.
The sirens are an important component of a much larger public warning system in Richardson. There is a great deal of communication and coordination taking place behind the scenes before the sirens are ever sounded. The City of Richardson's ability to provide warnings is a result of partnerships with the National Weather Service, local emergency response agencies and 9-1-1 Center staff as well volunteers who are trained as storm spotters and amateur radio operators. These groups all work together to make up an integrated system of hazard detection, consequence prediction, and warning dissemination.
The City of Richardson takes an "all-hazards" approach to public warning. This means that we use the same decision-making structure and alerting methods, regardless of the threat. Severe weather is far and away our most common threat, but it is not the only one we face. A hazardous material release, for example, could cause a threat to public safety. An incident of this type may necessitate activation of any or all components of the system, including outdoor warning sirens.