The federal government will conduct the first nationwide test of the National Emergency Alert System Wednesday at 2 p.m. EST.
The run-through, sponsored by the Federal Communications Commission and Federal Emergency Management Agency, will test whether the system can notify the public of immediate threats. Lasting 30 seconds, the message will be transmitted by television and radio stations in all U.S. states and territories.
The EAS was set up in 2006 as a public warning system to alert Americans to national and local crises, including terrorist attacks, weather emergencies and missing children.
The FCC and FEMA will use the test as a way to assess which local systems are unable to properly provide the information.
According to Phil Petree, president of NWA, Inc., local alerts do not actually test that particular device’s ability to receive critical alerts from the Emergency Alerting System.
“By sending emergency codes throughout the entire network, FEMA will find the failure points in the system,” he said.
Petree said that FEMA is notifying citizens about the test because it does not want the message, which will interrupt broadcasting services, to inspire panic. He said that uniformed citizens could misinterpret the test and overload 911 centers with unnecessary calls.
“No matter how large or small your community [is], your 911 center is sized, equipped and staffed to handle a normal amount of 911 calls. If all of a sudden, 1 percent of your population calls 911, your system will not be able to respond and you may suffer a 911 outage,” he said.
On its website, FEMA said that it will conduct the test at 2 p.m. to minimize the disruption to citizens’ daily routines and that programming will resume as normal after its conclusion.
