Two official agencies of the federal government of the United States are conducting a national Emergency Alert System test today, Wednesday, October 4, 2023 at 2:20 in the afternoon Eastern Daylight Time — meaning that televisions, radios, and mobile telephones in the United States will receive alerts as part of a national test of the capabilities of the Wireless Emergency Alerts and Emergency Alert System.
National Emergency Alert System Test Today, October 4 2023
Conducting this test is the Federal Emergency Management Agency in coordination with the Federal Communications Commission.
The Integrated Public Alert and Warning System is national system for local alerting that provides authenticated emergency and life-saving information to the public through mobile telephones using Wireless Emergency Alerts, to radio and television via the Emergency Alert System, and on the weather radio of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
If you — or someone you know — has a hidden mobile telephone for safety purposes or other reasons, please take note that even if the mobile telephone is silent, it may still emit a noise, vibrate, or read out the alert. If you have a second mobile telephone in response to being a victim of domestic violence, please remember to temporarily shut off your mobile telephone during the test.
Final Boarding Call
Although providers of wireless services will transmit the national test for 30 minutes, your mobile telephone should only receive it once — so when you receive the test later today, you will expect it if you did not already know about it.
In other words, this article is an alert to alert you about an alert.
Photograph ©2021 by Brian Cohen.
