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RICHMOND, Texas — An emergency alert went out to Fort Bend County residents on Thursday morning about a gas leak and we later learned it was tied to a ruptured line near Fulshear.
The gas leak was contained as of 12:30 p.m. The Fort Bend Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Management said it received the request from the Fort Bend County Sheriff’s Office Dispatch to send an alert to residents north of 25323 Fulshear Gaston Road, where the pipe had ruptured, within a 10-mile radius.
The Fort Bend OEM said it drafted an emergency message targeting only the affected area but the wireless emergency alert defaulted to notify everyone who subscribes to the alerts. On top of that, when the message went out, most of the message was deleted and only the words “gas leak” went out.
About 10 minutes later, the OEM’s office said it sent a corrected and updated message, but the correction message only went out to the initially intended recipients in the 10-mile radius around the gas leak.
Please see full release below:
On behalf of the Fort Bend County Office of Homeland Security & Emergency Management, we greatly apologize for any undue stress to residents receiving the emergency alert. pic.twitter.com/OQvtduN8qV
Officials said it took some time to realize that not everyone got the correction, but a final alert was sent about an hour later telling everyone that it was not an emergency.
“On behalf of the Fort Bend County Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, we greatly apologize for any undue stress to residents receiving the emergency alert. Please know that corrective measures on the emergency alerting systems template have been made to prevent any WEA mass notification,” the office said in an emailed statement.
KHOU 11 got reports of people getting the alert in Cinco Ranch, Sienna, Sugar Land and Rosenberg. Several cities, including Missouri City, Rosenberg and Sugar Land sent out tweets that the leak didn’t include them.
We are aware that Sugar Land residents have received an alert about a gas leak. There is NO leak in Sugar Land. The alert was sent countywide by mistake.
‼️MISSOURI CITY RESIDENTS: DISREGARD GAS LEAK WARNING‼️There is no gas leak in Missouri City. The warning was for Fulshear and was mistakenly sent to everyone in Fort Bend County. Please do not call 911.
CenterPoint officials said crews were able to safely turn off the natural gas and make repairs.
Be advised of a ruptured gas main located at 25323 Fulshear Gaston Rd. The area of concern is within a 10 mile radius of that location.
That is all of the information we have at this time.
The department said it’s taking full responsibility for the issue and they’re working with technicians who run the emergency alert system to make sure it doesn’t happen again.
“100% … trust the system. The system did work, it sent out the alert. The alert was wrong and that is on us. And I apologize for everybody if you got the wrong idea. But there was a gas leak, and people got it. It just didn’t do it in that correct area,” Fort Bend County Homeland Security and Emergency Management’s Gregory Ronald Babst said.
If a mass alert does go out for a real emergency situation, the county said that the alert will have instructions on what to do. For example, it could tell you to shelter in place, which means that wherever you are, stay there until it’s safe to leave.
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