RUSK COUNTY, Texas (KETK)-  With impeding bad weather coming to East Texas this week it is essential for residents to know when severe weather is heading their way.

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Rusk County Fire Marshal and Emergency Management Coordinator, Patrick Dooley wants to make sure all East Texans are being informed about impending severe weather.

“We want to make sure that we’re doing everything we can to help push pertinent, timely information out there to them so they get that information,” Dooley said.

However rural areas across East Texas counties staying informed during severe storms can look different. There can be spotty cell phone service and not all areas have tornado sirens.

“We’ve looked at them,” Dooley said. “They’re just very cost prohibitive right now.”

Dooley said like most updates these days they get the word out to as many people as possible on social media.

“We use Facebook, twitter, Instagram,” Dooley said.

Rusk also uses Rave/Smart 9-1-1 which is a notification system paid by the “East Texas council of Government” that allows officials to share important messages and emergency alerts.

“You would have full access as far as emergency notifications, whether they be locally state or national,” Dooley said.

Smith County is also using the same system currently. The way people can opt into this system is by going online to their counties website, but when the internet and service go down, they’ll go back to the original form of communication.

“It uses a national weather service algorithm. and when the national weather service issues a weather statement, it triggers that alert and anyone signed up gets the alert,” Smith County emergency management coordinator Brandon Moore said.

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Dooley emphasized the importance for everyone to do their own due diligence and stay weather aware.

“Listen to the weather, find different ways, whether it be, you know, the radio, tv, whatever it may be,” Dooley said.

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