TAMPA, Fla. — An early morning test of Florida’s emergency alert system that roused people from sleep on Thursday — and raised questions and tempers — wasn’t supposed to go to phones, state officials said.
The alert of the Emergency Alert System hit phones about 4:45 a.m., emitting the blaring tone typically heard for severe weather or the Amber Alerts sent out when children go missing.
“TEST - This is a TEST of the Emergency Alert System,” the alert said. “No action is required.”
But some Floridians did take action — they took to social media to complain and wonder why the test was scheduled for that time. Some who weighed in said they got the alert even though their phone’s settings were set to disable test alerts from the government. That prompted concerns from others who worried that would encourage people to disable all government alerts on their phones, leaving them uninformed in an actual emergency.
In a tweet sent at 8:40 a.m., the Florida Division of Emergency Management offered an apology and an explanation: the alert was meant for television, not phones.
“We know a 4:45 AM wake up call isn’t ideal,” said the tweet, which included a sweating, smiling emoji. “@FLSERT wants to apologize for the early morning text. Each month, we test #emergencyalerts on a variety of platforms. This alert was supposed to be on TV, and not disturb anyone already sleeping.
“We are taking the appropriate action to ensure this will never happen again and that only true emergencies are sent as alerts in the middle of the night,” a second tweet said.
Bryan Griffin, press secretary for Gov. Ron DeSantis, said in a tweet that the party responsible for the alert “will be held accountable and appropriately discharged.”
A schedule posted on the website of the Florida Association of Broadcasters shows a test of the system was scheduled for 4:50 a.m. Thursday. The schedule also showed tests are scheduled for the same time in June, August, October and December.
The National Weather Service chimed in with a tweet, urging Floridians not to disable government alerts on their phones.
“While certainly inconvenient this morning, we STRONGLY discourage you from disabling these alerts on your phone,” the weather service’s tweet said. “This could mean that you are unable to receive timely severe weather notifications from the severe weather notifications from the @NWS that may mean the difference between life and death.”
