Full Notification

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), in coordination with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), will conduct a nationwide test of the Emergency Alert System (EAS) and Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) system on October 3, 2018.

The test will assess the readiness to distribute an emergency message nationwide and determine whether improvements are needed. The test messages will be sent using FEMA’s IPAWS, which enables authorities to send emergency messages to multiple communications networks, including the EAS and WEA as part of the nation’s modern alert and warning infrastructure.

Sending the WEA test message will begin at 2:18 p.m. EDT. The EAS message will be sent at 2:20 p.m. EDT. This will be the first nationwide Presidential-level WEA test and cannot be opted out.