The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will conduct a nationwide Integrated Public Alert and Warning System test on Wednesday, Oct. 3, of both the Wireless Emergency Alerts and the Emergency Alert System. The first portion of the test will commence at 12:18 p.m. Mountain Time and the second portion will follow at 12:20 p.m. Mountain Time. This test will assess the operational readiness of the national emergency alerting systems and identify areas for improvement.
The WEA test message will be sent to cell phones that connected to wireless providers in WEA. Similar to a BroncoAlert, students, faculty and staff with cell phones will receive a text message to most devices, but you don’t have to opt-in to receive the national level alert. The text message will have a header that reads “Presidential Alert” and text that says:
“THIS IS A TEST of the National Wireless Emergency Alert System. No action is needed.”
The EAS portion of the test will be broadcast on radio, television, cable systems, satellite radio and wireline video providers. This is the fourth EAS national test and the first ever WEA test.
Boise State will be testing our own BroncoAlert campus emergency notification system later this month; if you have not opted-in for text messaging yet, go to www.boisestate.edu/news/bronco-alert/ for instructions.
For more information on the IPAWS and the EAS test, go to the FEMA IPAWS National Test page.