On Thursday Sept. 20, the first-of-its-kind presidential alert will be pushed out to cellphones. This will trigger the same special tone and vibration as those for weather warnings and Amber Alerts. The Wireless Emergency Alert will be accompanied by a text message with the headline “Presidential Alerts.” The 1:18 p.m. test will coincide with the Emergency Alert System test that interrupts radio and television broadcasts. The message that will be distributed immediately after the test will be: “THIS IS A TEST of the National Emergency Alert System. This system was developed by broadcast and cable operators in voluntary cooperation with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the Federal Communications Commission and local authorities to keep you informed in the event of an emergency. If this had been an actual emergency, an official message would have followed the tone alert you heard at the start of this message. A similar wireless emergency alert test message has been sent to all cell phones nationwide. Some cell phones will receive the message; other will not. No action is required.” FEMA says the test will assess the readiness of the infrastructure to distribute a national message and determine whether improvements are needed. Officials say it is not possible to opt out of the cellphone alert.
