SMITH COUNTY, Texas — Smith County officials are looking into a system error that caused an emergency alert to go out with the wrong message on Friday, leaving many residents confused.
At 12:08 p.m., people across the county received an urgent text warning about a hazard and were told to avoid the area. But there was never any actual danger. The alert was supposed to warn residents about high winds and fire danger, but something in the system caused the wrong message to be sent instead.
Smith County recently started using FEMA’s Integrated Public Alert & Warning System (IPAWS) to send emergency messages directly to cell phones. According to the system’s records, officials had prepared the correct message, but 9,262 residents still got the wrong alert.
To clear up the confusion, the county quickly sent a follow-up message through Rave, a different alert system, explaining the mistake. Officials chose not to resend the message through IPAWS right away because they weren’t sure if the error would happen again.
The issue has been reported to the Texas Division of Emergency Management, which will pass it along to FEMA for further investigation. County officials are now working to figure out why the system sent the wrong message and how to prevent it in the future.
“We know this may have caused some worry, and we truly apologize for any confusion,” officials said. “We’re working to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
For official updates and emergency alerts, residents are encouraged to stay connected through Smith County’s official channels.
