Church Funding Emergency Alert System for West, Texas

A church in the small Texas city devastated by a fertilizer plant explosion is funding an emergency alert system for the town’s residents.

The system will allow West officials to deliver an automated phone message to residents in the case of an incident like the blast last year that killed 15 people.

Waco television station KXXV reports that the city’s First United Methodist Church will pay almost $4,000 for two years of the system.

Pastor Jimmy Sansom says the church will draw from donations it received after the April 2013 blast.