FEMA Director Craig Fugate - Photo Credit FEMA
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On November 9th of this year, at 2:00pm Eastern Time, FEMA, along with partners NOAA and the FCC, will conduct the first ever nation-wide test of the Emergency Alert System (EAS).
The EAS can be activated in the event of a national emergency by the President of The United States, and on a more localized level by the NWS to issue severe storm warnings, and by state governors and local emergency managers for more geographically limited emergencies.
Although those of us who grew up during the cold war are well familiar with early CONELRAD and later EBS alerts, we have become a `wired’ nation, and no longer depend primarily on over-the-air radio and TV broadcasts.
With newer technologies such as satellite TV, cable TV, satellite Radio, etc. the task of alerting the nation during a crisis has grown considerably more complex. Telling people to turn to 640 or 1240 on their AM dial in the event of an emergency doesn’t cut it anymore.
Hence a need to test the system on a nationwide basis.
FEMA, which will spearhead this nationwide test, wants everyone to know – in advance – that the test messages to be issued on November 9th are just a test.
To that end, they have released a short video that will help to explain exactly what you may hear or see during this upcoming test.
For more on all of this, I would invite you to visit the FEMA BLOG.
FEMA Blog
October 28, 2011
Help Us Spread the Word – On November 9, “This is Just a Test”
Published by: Public Affairs
Over the past few months, we have written on this blog about the upcoming nationwide test of the Emergency Alert System, which is now less than two weeks away. The test will take place on Wednesday, November 9th at 2:00 pm eastern standard time, and will be the first time this system, which is often tested and used by officials at the local level, will be tested across the entire country.
For those of you on twitter, I would also suggest you follow @FEMA, @CraigatFEMA, and @ReadydotGov for the latest Emergency information.
