SAN ANTONIO – There are questions about the need for tornado sirens in San Antonio after two tornadoes touched down within the past four months.
District 6 Councilman Ray Lopez, whose district includes Deer Park where a twister damaged homes Tuesday, said it is a topic that has long been discussed.
However, Lopez believes the city's answer may lie in technology instead of sirens.
Technology that includes reverse-911 calls are something the city is already capable of doing.
Lopez said the city is looking into building up a database of numbers to perhaps look into technology that could text or alert citizens of impending weather via phone.
An area of San Antonio that does have an alert system is the UTSA campus. Audible alerts are used to warn students of any danger.
"It alerts students, faculty, and staff of life safety emergencies on campus," said Lorenzo Sanchez, Director of Emergency Management at UTSA.
The university, like the city, also looks to embrace technology by using texts, emails and calls to student's phones serving as warnings. The system is called the UTSA Emergency Notification System.
"We did a recent test and reached out to 35,000 students, faculty and staff within about a 12 minute span of time," said Sanchez.
This process would warn students that a tornado might be approaching and theoretically is technology that could be used on a larger scale for cities like San Antonio.
"We find that it's the number one way to reach to people when time and seconds count," said Sanchez.
While not common, tornadoes can occur in San Antonio. Many cities throughout the Texas hill country do not have warning siren systems.