FEMA to Conduct Two Emergency Test Alerts Tomorrow

     The U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will be conducting two tests that begin at 2:20pm tomorrow via televisions, radios, and cell phones to alert Americans to potential emergencies.

     FEMA will be testing its Emergency Alert System (EAS) and Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) to provide the public with authenticated emergency and life-saving information.

     To alert people through their cell phones, FEMA uses the Integrated Public Alert & Warning System (IPAWS)  to provide emergency alert test code messages users who have opted to receive test messages.

     The national tests will consist of two parts: each of which test WEA and EAS capabilities.

     During the tests, radios and televisions across the country may interrupt normal programming to play the EAS test message, which may be delivered in English or Spanish.

     Only cell phone users who have chosen to receive test messages will receive the WEA test, which will take place in either English or Spanish: depending on the device’s language settings.

     Although most cell phones will not display the WEA test message, all cell phones that are compatible with IPAWS alerts will automatically receive real emergency alerts.

Photo credit FEMA