(KGNS) - The city of Laredo is developing a new utility notification system that will send water outage alerts by text message and email.

Ignacio Juarez said unexpected water outages are a familiar frustration."Oh, yes, obviously. I think we've all been in those situations when you wake up, and there's a water issue going on, yes," Juarez said.

City of Laredo IT Director Joe Rivera said the city is using software it already owns, meaning no extra cost to taxpayers."We are leveraging a system that is already in place... There is a feature that we weren't really leveraging up to now; potentially, also not only email, but text messages," Rivera said.