It is a test.
It is only a test.
Residents shouldn’t be alarmed on Thursday, April 2, when cell phones, television screens and radio start buzzing with alerts during a statewide test of public warning systems in El Paso and across Texas.
“It’s a statewide drill,” El Paso Fire Department Battalion Chief Armando Valencia, the emergency management coordinator for the El Paso City-County Office of Emergency Management, said.
“This is a test” alerts will be sent between 9 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Thursday, April 2. Since El Paso is in the Mountain time zone, the El Paso test will take place an hour after the rest of Texas in the Central time zone, Valencia explained.
El Paso Fire Department Battalion Chief Armando Valencia is the emergency management coordinator for the El Paso City-County Office of Emergency Management.
Residents will receive messages through multiple notification systems, such as local radio, television stations, landlines at households and wireless emergency alerts on cell phones, Valencia said. The public is reminded that it is only a test and not an actual emergency.
EPFD Capt. Matthew Hunter, assistant emergency management coordinator, added that the alerts will not be continuous throughout the entire testing period. The alert system is also tested internally on a monthly basis.
The testing includes the Wireless Emergency Alerts, known as WEA, and the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System, or IPAWS. The exercise will include law enforcement agencies, school districts, colleges, universities and the Ysleta Del Sur Pueblo in El Paso.
Is the Texas test alert related to the Iran war?
“It’s not related to it (the war in Iran),” Valencia said in an interview at the city’s Emergency Operations Center, a huge room with desks surrounded by video screens on walls, which sat empty and quiet Monday morning, March 30.
“This is part of a statewide drill that the Texas Division of Emergency Management is requesting all jurisdictions to be involved in,” Valencia said. “It’s just to test the functionality of the system to prepare local residents for any emergency messages, to identify the areas we need to work on and also for us to have more confidence in activating the technology.”
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Why are alerts being sent in Texas?
The test of local warning systems is being done in coordination with the Texas Division of Emergency Management as part of preparation, response and recovery readiness in dealing with disasters and emergencies throughout the state.
Alerts will be sent to cell phones across Texas during a statewide test of local public warning systems on April 2, 2026.
“Regular training and testing of public warning systems builds readiness before disaster strikes and is an important component of community safety,” Texas Emergency Management Chief Nim Kidd said in a news release.
“Conducting drills to reaffirm procedures, promote confidence in technological tools, and identify potential shortfalls is key to ensuring these systems operate with precision, accuracy, and timeliness when they are needed the most,” Kidd said.
When are public emergency alerts issued?
The public alert system can be used to warn, notify and inform residents during an emergency, including active shooter situations, civil disturbances, industrial accidents and weather hazards, which in the West Texas region typically involve flash flooding and powerful wind storms, Valencia said.
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Valencia said that the El Paso Office of Emergency Management public alert was most recently issued in January during the major-scale water outage when piping burst in Northeast El Paso, damaging homes, and causing water outages and boil-water orders for more than 100,000 residents in Northeast and Central El Paso.
Daniel Borunda may be reached at dborunda@elpasotimes.com and @BorundaDaniel on X.
This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: Texas emergency alert test is coming