Emergency Notification Methods
Flood Early Warning Staff work closely with the City's Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Management during floods. If an evacuation becomes necessary, the City has the ability to call individual households with a pre-recorded message. The City also uses more traditional means of notification: NOAA weather radios, the AWACS pager system to alert the media, and the Emergency Conditions web page.

Austin's Most Flood Prone Areas
City of Austin engineers have identified 71 areas, identified in pink on the map below, that are most likely to need evacuation due to a flood and entered these areas into the telephone-based emergency notification system. The system works on all phones that are connected to the 911 network (landlines, cable-based and Internet-based phones).

Flood Early Warning Program's Emergency Notification Areas

Areas in pink have been entered into the City's Emergency Notification System to help evacuate them more quickly in the event of a flooding emergency.Click on the map to download a PDF (2.1 MB) that shows the whole city.

About the Emergency Call
City officials urge those living in flood-prone areas to listen to all computer-generated calls.

• Caller ID screens will read "Emergency."
• There is a distinct pause before the emergency message begins.
• The message begins with Troy Kimmel announcing an emergency. Troy Kimmel is the Chief Meteorologist for KVET, KASE and KFMK Radio and a Senior Lecturer in Studies in Weather and Climate in the Department of Geography and Environment at the University of Texas at Austin.
• Listen to the whole message since the instructions may vary.
• Residents may be told to shelter in place, leave immediately or to stay alert and monitor the media.

Sample Message
Listen to a sample evacuation message for the Onion Creek Forest subdivision or read the transcript.

Other Areas at Risk
In addition to the pink areas on the map, there are approximately 7,000 houses in the floodplain and more than 300 bridges in Austin subject to flooding. Every rainstorm is different and can cause sudden and unpredictable flooding effects. Flash flooding and localized flooding can sometimes occur faster than citizens can be warned or emergency personnel can respond. This is why every family needs to take personal responsibility to prepare in advance for flooding.