On Wednesday, October 4 in the U.S., the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) will test its Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) system. At 2:20 p.m. Eastern, people will receive a message on their mobile phones that reads, “THIS IS A TEST of the National Wireless Emergency Alert System. No action is needed.” In addition to the message, your iPhone will vibrate and play “a special sound that’s similar to an alarm” even if your iPhone is on silent. The alert will appear in Spanish for users who set their devices for that language.
Read more: What is the FEMA alert and how can you turn it off?
FEMA says that the test will run within a 30-minute window, so if your phone is off at the start of the test but then turned on during the window, you will get a test message. The test message should be sent only once, accompanied by “a unique tone and vibration, both repeated twice” and not played continuously, according to FEMA. You can delete the message after it is received. If a person subscribes to a wireless provider that does not participate in WEA, they will not receive the test.
FEMA is conducting the test to check for effectiveness. WEA is part of FEMA’s Integrated Public Alert & Warning System, which is used to send authenticated emergency messages to the public through multiple communications networks.” FEMA is also testing its Emergency Alert System (EAS), which involves radio and television broadcasts (but not streaming video services). The EAS test will last one minute.
Government alerts are turned on by default. To turn off government alerts, head over to the Notifications tab in Settings and scroll down to Emergency Alerts at the bottom of the screen. From there, you can turn off Emergency Alerts or mute the sound when in Silent mode.
FEMA offers an iPhone app that provides real-time weather alerts and can be used in the event of a disaster to find local emergency shelters, locate a Disaster Recovery Center, apply for individual assistance, and more.
