City offices will be closed Thursday, Nov. 28 and Friday, Nov. 29, in observance of the Thanksgiving holiday. All essential city services will continue to operate. Residential garbage and recycling collection will be moved by one day (Thursday pickup moved to Friday, Friday pickup moved to Saturday).
The City of Lewisville has partnered with Everbridge to bring residents and visitors Citizen Alert, an emergency alert system that can save lives and protect property during disasters. Beyond emergency alerts the Citizen Alert system may be used by The City to alert specific areas or neighborhoods of road closures, special events, or public utility work.
Registering with Citizen Alert allows emergency personnel in your community to directly contact you by phone, text or email during a disaster or public safety event. Citizen Alert also allows City Officials to contact you about specific information that may affect your neighborhood like a road closure or utility line repair. Using Citizen Alert can help you stay informed about dangerous conditions as they are unfolding and quickly give you specific directions that affect your neighborhood such as evacuation orders or directions to shelters.
What is Lewisville Citizen Alert, and why is it important?
Lewisville Citizen Alert is an emergency notification system that may be used to deliver alerts when there is a threat to the health or safety of residents. Lewisville Citizen Alert will be used by City of Lewisville
emergency officials to deliver incident-specific information or potentially life-saving instruction. This system may also be used to deliver important public safety and community alert information to Lewisville residents and businesses, such as important law enforcement information or notices of significant road closures.
What is the intended use for Lewisville Citizen Alerts?
The primary intent of the emergency notification system is to provide potentially life-saving information on severe weather, evacuation notices, hazardous materials incidents, public health alerts (such as boil water notices, biting animal alerts, infectious disease outbreak, etc.), and any other threat to the health or safety of residents. However, the system may also be used to distribute other important information such as AMBER, Blue and Silver alerts, missing persons bulletins, other important law enforcement information, utility outages or information on significant public works projects or road closures.
How does the system work?
Lewisville Citizen Alert is powered by Everbridge®, a web-based application that integrates mapping technology with contact databases, in order to provide recorded or computerized text-to-speech
notifications, and/or written text or email notifications to people in precisely targeted geographic areas. In essence, to issue an emergency notification, trained emergency officials can: (1) draw a call-out area on a map, (2) record an emergency message, and then (3) launch the alert. The system also has the ability to alert groups of contacts based on their “opt-in” interests or record type.
How do I edit my quiet time settings?
You can edit quiet time settings for all alerts excluding Tornado Warnings. To change the quiet time settings you will need to login to your Citizen Alert account.
1) From the homepage, look at the "My Alert Subscriptions" and use the "Edit" link.
2) On the next page expand the "Weather and Hazard Alerts" section and the quiet time settings will be available.
What are the system capabilities, and what are its limitations?
The Lewisville Citizen Alert emergency notification system is able to rapidly contact thousands of residents via home telephone number, cellular telephone number, business telephone number, email address, text messaging, and TDD/TTY, all thru one launch procedure. However, as with any single warning system there are limitations. While Lewisville Citizen Alerts utilizes state-of-the-art technology, larger notifications may require the system to limit the number of concurrent calls in order to prevent a taxing of phone switch capacity. Though this should not incur a tremendously lengthy delay, it is still possible that the notification will not reach everyone at the same time. In addition, just because a phone call is made…it doesn’t mean that someone answers. And it is always important to remember that technology can fail! Be sure you have a back up method of receiving important warning information.
Where do the telephone numbers in the database come from?
Lewisville Citizen Alert utilizes commercially available phone data as a core source of contact information, the same phone information you’d find in the “White Pages” or “Yellow Pages”. The system also includes City utility billing customer information, such as the contact information associated with your water bill. In addition, residents and business owners are also asked to provide contact information for their mobile device by registering for an account at the opt-in website. Citizens that have opted to register as part of the State of Texas Emergency Assistance Registry (STEAR) are also included in the database.
Does the system have my phone number already?
All publicly available, listed landline phones residing within Lewisville city limits are already included in the system. This information is obtained from commercial databases. However, all cellular phones are
NOT automatically included. You must self-register your cellular phone numbers.
What if my home phone number is unlisted?
Unlisted landline phone numbers are not included in the system. You must opt-in to receive notifications from the Lewisville Citizen Alert system on your unlisted number.
Do I have to pay for this service?
No. The City of Lewisville provides this critical service to enhance our ability to provide for public safety. However, call and text messaging charges may apply when you receive alerts, depending on your cellular provider and phone service plan. The length of any calls will typically be less than two minutes.
Will I receive nuisance calls?
No. The City of Lewisville respects your privacy. The system will only be used for emergency notifications, or other important community notifications. Also, notifications are typically targeted to the specific
geographic areas that are affected or potentially impacted by the situation.
I have an answering machine… If I’m not home, will the system leave a message?
If an answering machine picks up the call, the emergency message may be left on the machine. If your phone line is “busy”, the system may attempt a redial depending on call settings established by the
operator during the launch process. This said, system limitations in many cases may prohibit a message being left on the machine. So bottom-line, there may or may not be a message left on your answering
machine but a local number will always be provided on caller ID, to which you can follow up for information if desired.
I don’t have a landline telephone. Can I still receive Lewisville Citizen Alert emergency notifications?
Yes, but you must self-register using an online opt-in website or by completing a hard-copy registration form (available from the Lewisville Office of Emergency Management). If at all possible, please try to use
the opt-in website first; it’s much easier this way.
Does Lewisville Citizen Alert send out emergency text messages?
Yes. Be sure you’ve entered the cell phone number in which you’d like to receive texts thru your log-in at the opt-in website.
Will registering my cellular phone replace or “overwrite” my landline home phone?
No. Opt-in registrations are part of a database that is unique from, and in addition to, the automatically included landline telephone database.
I changed my cell phone number. Can I update my information?
Yes, just log into your account thru the opt-in website portal and update. There is no limit to the number of times you can change your information, and in fact, we urge you to do so as often as necessary in order to keep your information current.
I don’t want to receive Lewisville Citizen Alerts anymore… Can I cancel my registration?
Yes. Log into your account and delete the information as desired. You may also contact Lewisville OEM at 972.219.5089 to have your information removed.
What if I forget my password?
Like most websites requiring login credentials, the opt-in portal includes a “Forgot my Password” option.
If I already registered my cellular phone through the old DeltAlert system, do I have to re-register?
No. All previous registrations with our old system (DeltAlert) are already included. However, it may be wise to re-register through the new Lewisville Citizen Alert opt-in website just in case – to make sure that
we have your most up-to-date information.
Who can activate Lewisville Citizen Alert?
The Office of Emergency Management administers the system, and will coordinate with City officials during the need for an alert to be activated. OEM may also consult with City leadership and train other personnel on the system activation process. Currently, Police & Fire Dispatch personnel are trained to send alerts and may occasionally do so if/when needed. Weather alerts are automatically distributed to subscribers immediately upon the National Weather Service (NWS) issuing the official Watch, Warning, and Advisory (WWA) products.
What number will appear on my Caller ID?
Lewisville Citizen Alert enables the operator sending the alert to specify the number that appears on Caller ID. In all cases the number will appear as 972-219-XXXX with XXXX being a variable number depending on the desire of the operator launching the notification.
I am hearing impaired and I have a TTY/TDD device… Does the system accept TTY/TDD numbers?
The Lewisville Citizen Alert system can send alerts to TTY/TDD devices. Those persons utilizing these devices are required to register the phone number associated with their TTY/tdd device via our opt-in portal.
I don’t live in Lewisville, but I work there… Can I sign up to receive emergency notifications for incidents happening in that area?
Yes. Thru the opt-in website, you can add multiple locations within the City of Lewisville to “watch”.
Can I “watch” more than one address?
Yes. You can sign up for alerts affecting various locations within Lewisville. For example, you can be notified of issues that affect your house, your work location, and the school your child attends.
Who is the current vendor for Lewisville Citizen Alert?
The current vendor for Lewisville Citizen Alert is Everbridge®, a leading emergency notification system provider.
Is this the only emergency warning tool that the City of Lewisville uses?
The Lewisville Citizen Alert emergency notification system is used in conjunction with other methods of distributing emergency warning and alerts, such as:
Coordination with local media outlets
The Outdoor Warning System (sirens)
A social media presence
Thru coordination with the National Weather Service, emergency broadcasts via Emergency Broadcast System tv overrides and All-Hazards Weather Radios
No single tool will provide enough warning to all people in all situations. Each emergency warning method has its limitations. Lewisville Citizen Alerts are only one component of the overall warning system and
should NEVER be viewed as your only means of emergency notification. It is always important to pay attention to your surroundings by monitoring local radio, television, web or official social media sources, or
use tools such as an All-Hazards NOAA Weather Radio.
