PSA: An emergency alert test will be sent to your phone on October 4

In the event of a nation or statewide emergency, government agencies need to be able to reach the masses, and one of those ways is through emergency alerts that are sent to your phone.

In an announcement, FEMA and the FCC will be conducting a nationwide test for its Emergency Alert System and Wireless Emergency Alerts on the 4th of October at around 2:20PM ET.

This means that around that time, don’t be surprised if you see an emergency alert notification on your phone, and more importantly, don’t panic because this is just a test. According to the announcement:

“The WEA portion of the test will be directed to all consumer cell phones. This will be the third nationwide test, but the second test to all cellular devices. The test message will display in either English or in Spanish, depending on the language settings of the wireless handset.”

Since this is an emergency alert, it will be different from your usual phone notifications. The alert is said to be accompanied by a “unique tone and vibration” that will help it stand out from other notifications, so once again if you’re out in public and you start hearing phones blare out in unison, don’t panic as this is simply a test of the system.

Source: FEMA