The Communications Subcommittee works with local industry, police and fire dispatchers, and the Deer Park Independent School District to develop detailed procedures how to notify the City and warn the public in case of a chemical release.

Local plants have telephone, fax, and/or radio communications with the City and their industrial neighbors. Most plants have also installed dedicated, fiber-optic telephone lines on Southwestern Bell's Emergency Network Service so the City and industry can stay in touch even when normal phone circuits are overloaded or out of service. 

For more information about the Emergency Network Service, other LEPC's and industry along the Houston ship channel should contact Southwestern Bell's Holly Hurley at 713/567-4643.

The city's police and fire dispatchers have been trained how to handle calls from industry about a chemical release and how to quickly activate the city's emergency warning systems. The LEPC has adopted a three-level CAER system to categorize the severity of each chemical release:

Level 1:   INFORMATION ONLY. An industrial incident is in progress at a facility and can be handled within the facility's boundaries with no effect on areas outside the facility.

Level 2:   STANDBY ALERT. An industrial incident is in progress at a facility and it appears that it can be handled within the boundaries of the facility. However, outside areas could be affected.

Level 3:   FULL EMERGENCY CONDITION. An industrial incident is in progress that will affect outside areas.  Shelter In Place may be required. Details about how to Shelter In Place are covered in the EMERGENCY page of this website.

ALL CLEAR: The industrial incident previously reported has ended and everything is back to normal.

In addition, any incident producing smoke of more than five minutes duration, any unusual odor that might extend outside the plant boundaries, or any unusual noise that could possibly be heard outside the plant boundaries should be reported to the Deer Park Police dispatcher immediately, generally within 15 minutes.

The City and local industry have invested in six state-of-the-art systems to provide reliable and redundant warning to homes, schools, businesses, and visitors:

1.     OUTSIDE ALARM SYSTEM

Eight siren-type alarms are mounted on utility poles throughout the City of Deer Park (plus another alarm is installed at Battleground State Park). The alarms can be sounded citywide or only in the geographic area affected by the emergency. This system is only used for chemical releases or severe weather such as a tornado spotted in the Deer Park area.

Police dispatchers can instantly activate the Outside Alarm System to emit 7 wavering tones.

If you have a computer with a sound card and speakers, click to listen to the Warning Sound which consists of seven wavering tones..

After the emergency is over, an "all clear" will be issued by City officials.  The All Clear Sound is a continuous tone on the Outside Alarm System.

If you have a computer with a sound card and speakers, click to listen to the All Clear Sound.

The Outside Alarm System is tested at 6:00 p.m. on the first Thursday of each month.

2.     SCHOOL AND PUBLIC BUILDING NOTIFICATION SYSTEM

The City and Deer Park Independent School District have installed emergency notification radios in the School District Administration Building, all school buildings, and all city buildings. This pager-type radio system can be instantly activated by police dispatchers. School administrative staff and teachers have been trained how to shelter in place in order to protect their children until the emergency is over.

3.     AUTOMATED TELEPHONE NOTIFICATION NETWORK

The City has contracted with the Greater Harris County 9-1-1 Network to utilize its "Neighborhood Early Warning System".  NEWS is an automated telephone notification network which can automatically ring the telephones of homes and businesses in the immediate danger area, giving pre-recorded instructions about what to do. The system can be activated citywide or within one or more geographic zones, reaching thousands of telephones in minutes. The 9-1-1 Network's database contains all listed and unlisted telephone numbers in Deer Park. Currently cell phone numbers and VoIP numbers issued by cable companies can not be added to the database.. 

4.     AM 530 RADIO

The City has installed its own radio station at 530 on the AM dial. During non-emergency periods, AM 530 airs community and school district news, and re-broadcasts reports from the National Weather Service. During a chemical release, AM 530 will continuously repeat instructions about how to Shelter In Place and provide more information as it's available. Because AM 530 operates at only 10 watts, you may need a more powerful radio or outside antenna to hear these broadcasts. If you can't hear AM 530, tune to KTRH AM 740 instead.  

5.     EMERGENCY ALERT SYSTEM (EAS)

The Federal Communications Commission has developed the Emergency Alert System (EAS) to warn you of any emergency (nuclear attack, hurricane, tornado, flood, or chemical release). The FCC has designated KTRH 740 AM as the EAS station for the Houston area. The City has a special two-way radio so it can transmit emergency messages to KTRH. Each emergency message will be broadcast on AM 740 and automatically relayed to all other radio, television, and cable TV outlets in the Houston area. TV and cable outlets may display the message as a "crawl" across your TV screen. EAS messages are also broadcast on KUHF-FM 88.7 and on NOAA Weather Radio.  

6.     COMMUNITY AWARENESS EMERGENCY RESPONSE (CAER) LINE

The CAER Line is a 400-line computerized telephone answering system operated by FirstCall Network and funded by the East Harris County Manufacturers Association. Both the City and industry have the ability to record messages on the CAER Line describing emergency or non-emergency events (such as routine maintenance, flaring, or firefighter training which might be mistaken for an emergency.) You can call 281/476-2237 (CAER) or 281/476-2273 (CARE) to listen to those messages affecting your geographic area. During a major emergency, the CAER Line may ring busy continuously, so listen to AM 530 or AM 740 instead.