Smith County alert sent out in error Friday
Posted/updated on: March 14, 2025 at 4:10 pm
SMITH COUNTY – When Smith County officials attempted to push out an alert to residents about high winds and fire danger on Friday, a system error sent out the wrong message.
At 12:08 p.m., Smith County residents instead received a text labeled urgent that warned them of a hazard and to avoid the area.
Smith County recently started using FEMA’s IPAWS (Integrated Public Alert & Warning System), which allows officials to send urgent texts to all Smith County residents’ cell phones. The IPAWS delivery report contained the original intended message and not the mistaken message that was sent out to 9,262 people. There was never a hazard in Smith County nd officials are trying to figure out why the system sent the wrong message.
In an attempt to correct the error and calm residents, a text was sent out through Rave, a different mass notification system Smith County uses, to explain that the first alert was sent out in error. The IPAWS platform was not used again because officials were unsure if it would send out another error message.
The system error was reported immediately to the Texas Division of Emergency Management, which will report it to FEMA. Officials are trying to figure out what happened.
Smith County officials apologized for any inconvenience.
