Tuscaloosa, Alabama EAS, WEA Tests

Townsquare Media takes keeping you informed seriously. So do the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). There are many ways they keep us informed, and one is by way of alerts. These notifications are the Emergency Alert System (EAS) for radio and television and Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) for phones.

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Here is some advance notice, there will be a test of the national EAS (radio and television) and WEA (phones) on Wednesday, August 11, 2021, at 1:20 p.m. central time zone. We wanted you to have this heads up so you would not panic.

According to FEMA, “Before a national EAS test is conducted, there is significant coordination with radio and television broadcasters, cable systems, satellite radio and television providers, wireline video providers, and emergency managers.”

Radio and Television

The Emergency Alert System (EAS) is a test that is sent to radios and televisions. There are different types of EAS alerts. Ready Gov lets us know that EAS is a “national public warning system that allows the President to address the nation within 10 minutes during a national emergency. State and local authorities may also use the system to deliver important emergency information such as weather information, imminent threats, AMBER alerts and local incident information targeted to specific areas.”

Consumer Cell Phones

The Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) will be a test sent to consumer cell phones where the subscriber has opted-in to receive text messages. Ready Gov notes that these alerts are “short emergency messages from authorized federal, state, local, tribal and territorial public alerting authorities that can be broadcast from cell towers to any WEA‐enabled mobile device in a locally targeted area. WEAs can be sent by state and local public safety officials, the National Weather Service, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, and the President of the United States.”

(Source) Click here for more information from FEMA. Click here for more details from Ready Gov.

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