Emergency phone alerts have saved lives and caused confusion

If you were jolted by your phone buzzing and beeping at 2:17 p.m. Eastern time Wednesday, you weren’t alone. The brief ruckus was a test of the Wireless Emergency Alerts system, launched by the Federal Emergency Management Agency more than a decade ago to deliver alerts for extreme weather, missing children and other imminent threats. The National Weather Service and emergency management agencies have used the system effectively since its inception, but with some recent notable failures.

The Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) system not only enables the U.S. government to instantly reach hundreds of millions of people nationwide in the case of a widespread emergency such as a terrorist attack, but it also allows local authorities to contact people in a certain area experiencing a more localized threat. The alerts look like text messages and are accompanied by a special tone and vibration.

The National Weather Service issues WEAs in dangerous weather situations to get the attention of people who may not be tuned in to local media or subscribed to weather alerting services.

The alerts “have been a game changer in helping [to] get warnings to people quickly,” according to Michael Gerber, a Weather Service meteorologist and emergency alerts expert. “I’ve heard dozens of stories of lives saved and tragedies avoided as a result of WEAs.”

The system has experienced its share of successes and failures. More than 70,000 alerts had been sent by emergency managers to warn of severe weather, the Federal Communications Commission said last year, and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children reports that 136 children have been recovered because of AMBER alerts sent as WEAs.

In early August, however, many people did not receive an evacuation alert issued by Maui County in Hawaii during the devastating fires that killed nearly 100 people. Glitches also occurred in the system later in the month, preventing officials in San Bernardino County from sending an evacuation alert as Hurricane Hilary approached California.

Several tests of the system have gone awry as well. In 2018, also in Hawaii, what was supposed to be an internal test of the system triggered a false warning of a missile threat that caused a wave of panic. In April, many Florida residents were awakened at 4:45 a.m. by a test alert that was supposed to be on TV but instead sounded alarms on cellphones. The Florida Division of Emergency Management apologized a few hours later. And just last month, the U.S. Tsunami Warning Center mistakenly sent a test tsunami alert to phones in the eastern United States.

In recognizing the 10th anniversary of the alerts, the Weather Service highlighted several improvements since their debut. For example, alerts now can be targeted at cellphones within one-tenth mile of a warned area, whereas, previously, an entire county was alerted. And the character limit was increased from 90 to 360, allowing the messages to include more information and calls to action.

Weather Service works to refine alerting

The Weather Service has made occasional changes in its weather alert thresholds - with a focus on notifying the public about the most dangerous, life-threatening hazards.

In 2020, the agency switched to sending flash flood alerts only where the flooding was tagged as “considerable” or “catastrophic,” the two most severe of three categories, thus reducing the number of wireless flash flood alerts by about 85 percent. Previously, it would issue a wireless alert for every flash flood warning, typically totaling about 4,000 per year, a volume that it worried would desensitize people to the hazard.

But the agency also has expanded the types of hazards that trigger its alerts.

In 2021, the Weather Service began issuing wireless alerts for severe thunderstorm warnings that included the term “destructive,” a label given to storms expected to produce life-threatening winds of at least 80 mph or hail at least 2.75 inches in diameter. Previously, wireless alerts were not issued for these warnings, which the Weather Service issues for any thunderstorm that it expects to produce damaging winds of at least 58 mph, hail at least 1 inch in diameter or a tornado.

In February, the Weather Service completed implementation of emergency alerts for “high-impact” snow squalls that lead to a sudden onset of whiteout conditions and icy roads.

Seeking alerts for severe winter storms

Last month, New York Attorney General Letitia James (D) called for one more change. She wrote a letter to the director of the Weather Service and the administrator of its parent agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, asking for the reinstatement of wireless alerts for severe winter storms. The request came after 47 people died — many outdoors or in their vehicles — in a historic blizzard in December that buried Buffalo in nearly 50 inches of snow in three days. In the letter, James noted that alerts were sent for major blizzards when the system was deployed in 2012 but that such alerts were discontinued the next year.

“Such alerts likely would have prompted more people to safely take preparatory measures in the days ahead of the storm, such as stocking up on groceries, medications, and other essential items, or transporting elderly/ailing family members or friends to safer spaces,” James wrote. “And once the Service confirmed the severity of the blizzard . . . and local authorities had announced driving bans, additional WEA alerts could have provided call-to-action messages urging all to remain indoors and stay off the roads to avoid blocking emergency crews and ambulances.”

James also called for alerts to be issued in more languages than just English and Spanish after 18 people in New York, many of Asian descent, died in flooding caused by Hurricane Ida in 2021.

The Weather Service sent a letter of response to James on Tuesday, Weather Service spokeswoman Susan Buchanan said in an email. The letter states that wireless alerts for blizzard and ice storm warnings were terminated on the basis of “public feedback, which strongly indicated that too many WEAs were burdensome, overwhelming, and not useful for impending weather events expected in more than 12 hours in the future,” according to an excerpt shared with The Washington Post. The letter said the agency is “reviewing the ability to issue” a special type of warning for “particularly dangerous” blizzards and ice storms that “may enable” activation of wireless alerts.

In considering whether to expand its alerts, the Weather Service will need to grapple with concerns about overwarning the public.

“Over-alerting is a common fear in emergency management circles because it can lead people to ignore alerts and not take needed action. The sheer volume of different updates can be similarly overwhelming, burying emergency alerts in countless other messages,” media and communication professors Elizabeth Ellcessor and Hamilton Bean wrote in a commentary about Wednesday’s test. “Many people have even opted out of alerts when possible, rummaging through settings and toggling off every alert they can find.”