FEMA, state broadcasters, in coordination with emergency managers test the Emergency Alert System 

Press release from the Federal Emergency Management System:

ATLANTA—The U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), in coordination with state, local, tribal, and territorial emergency managers and state broadcasters’ associations, will conduct a test of the Emergency Alert System (EAS) in twenty-two states, two territories, and the District of Columbia on Wednesday, February 24, at 2:20 p.m. (Eastern).

Broadcasters from the following FEMA Region IV states are voluntarily participating in the test: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, and South Carolina. Other participating locations include Arkansas, Delaware, District of Columbia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Maryland, Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, Texas, U.S. Virgin Islands, and Virginia. The EAS test is made available to radio, broadcast and cable television systems is and scheduled to last approximately one minute.

The test will verify the delivery and broadcast, and assess the readiness for distribution of a national-level test message. The message of the test will be similar to the regular monthly test message of EAS, normally heard and seen by the public: This is a national test of the Emergency Alert System. This is only a test.

The EAS test might also be seen and heard in states and tribes bordering the states participating in the test.

Public safety officials need to be sure that in times of an emergency or disaster they have methods and systems that will deliver urgent alerts and warnings to the public when needed. Periodic testing of public alert and warning systems is a way to assess the operational readiness of the infrastructure for distribution of a national message and determine what improvements in technologies need to be made.

More information on the Public Alert and Warning System and Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) is available at www.fema.gov/ipaws or www.ready.gov/alerts.

Background: In 2007, FEMA began modernizing the nation’s public alert and warning system by integrating new technologies into the existing alert systems. The new system, known as the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS) became operational in 2011. Today, IPAWS supports over 700 local, state, tribal, and federal users through a standardized message format. IPAWS enables public safety alerting authorities such as emergency managers, police and fire departments to send the same alert and warning message over multiple communication pathways at the same time to citizens in harm’s way, helping to save lives. For more information on FEMA’s IPAWS, go to: www.fema.gov/ipaws. For more preparedness information, go to www.ready.gov.