The most important thing that you and your family can do to prepare for an emergency situation is to know the difference between a watch and a warning and know how you will be notified of hazardous conditions in the City of Mesquite.

WATCH:
Conditions are favorable for the development of a hazardous situation.

A watch always means that conditions are favorable. In order to issue a watch, there must be some amount of lead-time. Some hazards, hazardous materials spills for example, rarely provide any time in which to issue watches.

Recently in North Central Texas, the National Weather Service has started issuing Ozone Watches. Simply, conditions are favorable to produce poor air quality. When air quality becomes poor then an Ozone Warning is issued.

WARNING:
A hazardous condition exists. It is time to take immediate actions to protect yourself and your family.

Just like the WATCH situation, this can be used for any type of hazard that may affect residents in this city. The City of Mesquite may issue warnings as soon as on-scene responders verify assumptions, reports are received from other jurisdictions, multiple citizen reports help confirm suspicions, or other similar resources verify a hazardous condition.

When a warning is issued in your part of town, make sure that you have your family's Disaster Supply Kit and Family Emergency Response Plan in tow with you to the shelter, safe room, or to the car if an evacuation has been requested.

How will Mesquite residents receive information about watches and warnings?

Considering that watches require some lead-time, there is usually some type of media coverage about a potential hazard before there is any danger to Mesquite residents. For weather related events, the National Weather Service will issue watches over their weather radio network which most television and radio stations will rebroadcast.

The City of Mesquite is more appropriately equipped to issue warnings specifically for Mesquite. The best way that we can properly notify the majority of residents in Mesquite is using multiple systems for warning. We call the use of multiple warning devices the Mesquite Integrated Warning System or MIWS. This system uses the Outdoor Warning Sirens, Emergency Alert System of North Central Texas, AT&T Cable Override, KEOM Radio, and mobile emergency units to provide warning as a backup.