A.D. Ibarra
-Maverick County

    Maverick County Emergency Management Coordinator Polo Vielma informed The News Gram of the fact that he is working with a company by the name of Everbridge to develop a mass notification system by which both key players involved in the coordination of efforts in case of an emergency such as community leaders and municipal and county administrators and first responders plus the citizens at large in our community can be notified of emergency information.
    This will allow key players in rescue efforts to be notified of any severe weather conditions or they availability of shelters in the immediate area of a natural disaster such a flood, fire or adverse weather conditions.
    "The system can be broken down into quadrants, areas and or precincts if necessary," stated Vielma, from his new officeas he is now the District Clerk in the County of Maverick, "Citizens and/or key players in the rescue or evacuation efforts can be notified in various ways and i has a system of checks and balances which advises it the moment the person reads the message.  With the advent of advanced cellular telephony, this can be achieved even faster."
Vielma added that all forms of media are also key in this process, however in the event that an emergency occurs in the middle of the night, this system should play an integral role in the dispensing of information to the general public as well and he urges that they are beginning to gather information by way of the white and yellow pages and citizens who are not in the phone book will need to provide him and his staff with information which they will be doing systematically in the near future.
    "Any measures we can take that can help us save lives and protect property in case of an emergency will be taken.  With the cold weather we have been seeing over the past two weeks, we have personnel readily available and on standby and warming stations are available in Maverick County."