NATIONWIDE EMERGENCY ALERT SYSTEM TEST WEDNESDAY

  

Electronic devices around the nation will receive alerts tomorrow (Wednesday) as part of a test of the U.S. emergency alert system.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), in coordination with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), will conduct the test at 1:20 p.m.

The test will broadcast a test message through both the Emergency Alert System (EAS) and Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA).

The EAS test will be sent to radios and televisions, while the WEA test will be directed only to consumer cell phones where the subscriber has opted-in to receive test messages.

Cell towers will broadcast the WEA test for approximately 30 minutes.  The EAS portion of the test is scheduled to last one minute.

The test is intended to ensure public safety officials have the methods and systems that will deliver urgent warnings to the public in times of an emergency or disaster.