FEMA to Conduct Test of the Emergency Alert System in Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, and Tennessee

From: FEMA-IGA [mailto:FEMA-IGA@fema.dhs.gov]
Sent: Monday, March 16, 2015 10:16 AM
To: FEMA-IGA
Subject: FEMA IGA Advisory: FEMA to Conduct Test of the Emergency Alert System in Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, and Tennessee

 

U.S. Department of Homeland Security

Federal Emergency Management Agency

Intergovernmental Affairs Division

Telephone 202-646-3444

Intergovernmental Affairs Advisory

March 16, 2015

FEMA to Conduct Test of the Emergency Alert System in Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, and Tennessee

As part of the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA’s) mission to strengthen preparedness and resiliency, FEMA, state and tribal emergency managers, and state broadcaster association will conduct a test of the Emergency Alert System (EAS). The EAS will be tested in Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, and Tennessee on Wednesday, March 18, 2015, at 2:30 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, and will last approximately one minute.. 

The test will be seen and heard by the public over radio, television and cable TV systems, with only minor disruptions in programming.  It’s designed to occur during the state’s regular monthly EAS test conducted by local broadcasters in Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, and Tennessee. The message will be the same as typical EAS test messages, with the word “National” added to the message: “This is a National test of the Emergency Alert System. This is only a test...

The test requires that participating radio and television stations make a minor configuration change to their station EAS equipment to receive a National Periodic Test (NPT) code message.  EAS stations will receive and broadcast a national test message from FEMA’s system known to broadcasters and state alerting officials as the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System or IPAWS.  Participation in the test on March 18^th is completely voluntary for radio and TV stations and cable operators in Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, and Tennessee.  There is no Federal Communications Commission regulatory liability for stations that choose not to participate.  Comprehensive testing and analyzing of alerting technologies will ensure that an effective and reliable system will exist to alert members of tribes, and residents in all four states if an emergency occurs.

The FEMA Integrated Public Alert and Warning System also supports capabilities for state and local alerting authorities to distribute emergency alerts to cellular phones as Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA), to broadcast non-weather emergency information to NOAA All-Hazards Weather Radios, and to publish emergency information and alerts to the Internet connected to unique alerting systems that monitor and redistribute alerts through various Internet applications, services, or websites.  Internet redistributors of emergency information can include Facebook, Twitter, websites, digital signs and specialized applications (APPS). Devices that serve people with disabilities and others with access and functional needs can also pick up the redistributed alert messages through the FEMA All-Hazards Information Feed partners. 

In 2007, FEMA began modernizing the nation’s public alert and warning system by integrating new technologies into the existing alert systems.  The new system, known as the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS) became operational in 2011 and today supports over 700 local, state, and federal users and uses a standardized message format to enable public safety alerting authorities to send the same alert and warning message over multiple communication pathways at the same time to citizens in harm’s way, helping to save lives.

Public safety officials need to be sure that in times of an emergency or disaster, they have methods and systems that will deliver urgent alerts and warnings to the public when needed.  Periodic testing of public alert and warning systems is a way to analyze and determine what improvements in technologies need to be made. 

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact FEMA’s Intergovernmental Affairs Division at (202) 646-3444 or at FEMA-IGA@fema.dhs.gov.

FEMA’s mission is to support our citizens and first responders to ensure that as a nation we work together to build, sustain, and improve our capability to prepare for, protect against, respond to, recover from, and mitigate all hazards.

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