Current Status
Ongoing
Activity In 2022
The Alert Houston campaign has a total of 22,256 registered Houstonians who will receive timely notifications of accurate and actionable information, including 9,558 new sign ups.
Beyond 2022
Our goal for 2023 is to increase enrollment awareness, traffic to the city’s emergency information website, and the public’s awareness of periods of severe weather and other hazards.
Why is it Important to Have Accurate, Real-Time Emergency Alerts?
Disasters and emergencies do not happen according to boundaries on a map. The vast majority of essential systems and “lifelines”— roads and transit, bayous and waterways, the energy grid and drinking water supplies, and communications systems—are regional. The City of Houston, regional counties, and the surrounding jurisdictions must therefore work together to prepare for the various shocks and stresses that may lie ahead. This year alone the region experienced a winter storm, tropical storm, and flooding, which continue to exacerbate inequities in Houston. In 2020 and 2021, efforts to increase enrollment suffered many challenges amid the pandemic. The public information officer position, which is responsible for handling this campaign, was vacant for more than half a year, which resulted in stalled efforts as well. In September 2021, a new public information officer was hired, and a digital advertising campaign was launched in October 2021 to promote Alert Houston enrollment. This campaign included bilingual messaging and targeted demographics in the age group of 18 to 100. It recorded 234,000 individual interactions with Houstonians, demonstrating the ability to reach a broader audience if scaled up. Findings of the campaign were captured by OEM, and the city is working to identify funding to run the campaign year-round. This would increase the total yearly engagement to close to 100% of the population every year.
Resources
- 2022 Data Source
- COH OEM