Grayson County urges CodeRED sign-ups as flood watch runs into Friday

Grayson County is asking residents to register for CodeRED, the free emergency alert service it offers with its 16 cities, as a flood watch for the Denison area stretches into Friday morning. The county posted the appeal Sept. 30, the day the watch was set to begin.

A National Weather Service forecast updated Sept. 29 for a spot three miles north-northwest of Denison listed the watch from 4 p.m. Wednesday to 7 a.m. Friday.

CodeRED messages reach people by phone call, text, email or TDD/TTY, according to the county. Its Office of Emergency Management names Sarah Somers as emergency management coordinator.

The county tells residents not to take their registration for granted. Public phone databases can be out of date, the county says, so no one should assume a number is already on file. Weather warnings take a separate opt-in. Anyone who moves or gets a new number should update the account.

The weather service advises against leaning on a single source for warnings, because technology can fail or a message can arrive late. It points to NOAA Weather Radio receivers, which can be set for particular counties and keep working on battery backup.

Closer to home, Cooke County directs Gainesville residents to enroll in the city's CodeRED system and says they may sign up for county alerts too. Cooke County calls its own CodeRED service a supplement to the communication systems it already has.

Grayson County's use of the system goes back almost two decades. Sherman council minutes record Fire Chief Jeff Jones saying the city started with CodeRED in 2006 and the county took it countywide, weather warnings included, beginning in 2008. Sherman still contracts with the county for the service. The city separates alerts that local emergency managers choose to send from weather calls that go out on their own when the weather service issues a warning.

The county's April 14–20 claims report lists $29,653.17 to OnSolve Intermedia Holding Company for the fiscal 2026 CodeRED notification system. The county also has more people to reach than it did at the start of the decade. Census Bureau estimates show its population grew about 13 percent from April 2020 to July 2025.

Cellphone alerts have limits of their own. Since February 2020, Wireless Emergency Alerts go out automatically only for flash-flood warnings tagged with considerable or catastrophic impact. The weather service says it raised that bar after complaints about too many alerts. Every flash-flood warning still goes through the Emergency Alert System and sets off weather radios.

CodeRED has run into trouble elsewhere. Cambridge, Mass., reported that a nationwide cyberattack in November 2025 took the platform offline. Denton County moved its alerts to Everbridge and tells former CodeRED subscribers they must open new accounts. In March, the Texas Division of Emergency Management announced an April 2 statewide drill of primary and backup warning systems and asked for reports on the results and any shortcomings.