The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will conduct a nationwide emergency alert test at approximately 11:20 a.m. PT on Wednesday, October 4th.
The 1-minute test alert will be sent to all TVs, radios and smartphones, but if your phone is set to Wi-Fi or airplane mode, it won’t receive an alert because the message goes out over the cellular broadcast system. The alert sound is similar to an Amber Alert or weather warnings issued by the National Weather Service.
The broadcast will only go out once, announcing that “This is only a test.” There is no action required by the general public and the alert is simply to test the system, should a nationwide emergency or a natural catastrophe happen in the future.
The alert will take place at the same time across time zones and here is a list of alert times happening across the country:
- 2:20 p.m. EDT (Eastern Daylight Time)
- 1:20 p.m. CDT (Central Daylight Time)
- 12:20 p.m. MDT (Mountain Daylight Time)
- 11:20 a.m. PDT (Pacific Daylight Time)
- 10:20 a.m. ADT (Atlantic Daylight Time)
- 8:20 a.m. HST (Hawaii Standard Time)
