IPAWS national test scheduled for Oct. 3
Published 8:13 pm Tuesday, October 2, 2018
Troup County Emergency Management would like to inform the public of the Integrated Public Alert and Warning Systems National Test of the Wireless Emergency Alerts and the Emergency Alert System planned for Wednesday, Oct. 3, according to a press release.
The Wireless Emergency Alerts is an alert used to warn the public about hazardous weather, missing children and other dangerous conditions.
This alert is delivered via cellphone and has a special tone and vibration used to alert the user. It will be similar to those used in the instance of an AMBER Alert or a Tornado Warning.
The Emergency Alert System is an alert system used to enable the president to communicate with the public in order to address national emergency concerns. This test will be broadcasted to EAS participants and is scheduled to last approximately one minute.
This nationwide test will be conducted by the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Federal Communications Commission as a way to measure the preparedness of the communication system and delivery of the alerts and to determine if any changes need to be made.
The WEA test will be conducted at 2:18 p.m. EDT on Oct. 3, and the EAS test will follow directly after at 2:20 p.m. EDT.
Originally planned for Sept. 20, 2018, the test was rescheduled for this week due to ongoing response efforts from Hurricane Florence.