FEMA Nationwide EAS/WEA Test

[Rachel Salus]

Hi all, Florida here!
FEMA and the FCC are doing a nationwide EAS and WEA test on 10/04/2023 at 1420 hours (EDT). Here in Florida, we are still reeling from a test WEA that went live before 5am back in April. I am concerned that we’re going to lose the remaining folks who haven’t yet turned off their WEA’s if they get another test alert. Needless to say, there was an exceptional amount of anger, not just from the public but also from officials. Countless news articles and online posts with step-by-step instructions on how to turn the WEA off on iOS and Android. There was little to no support or explanation of the importance of WEA’s.

My idea was to work with our PIO’s and do an on-going educational media blitz: What the WEA is, why it’s used, **how to turn live alerts ON and turn OFF the test option**, feature success stories where the WEA led to the safe recovery of a missing child, etc.

The most important part, at this point, is teaching the public how to turn off the test option. This HAS to happen before October 4th.

Has anyone put out product (media releases, social media posts, flyers, coloring books, skywriting, smoke signals, ANYTHING!) on the details of the WEA? Or has your state seen a decline in WEA recipients? If so, how are you combating that?

I’d like to create posts to share with the PIO and convince them to get on board with this. ‘Cause I don’t know about you guys, but whenever a WEA goes out, the public assumes it’s an AMBER Alert and the Clearinghouse is on the receiving end of their displeasure.

Thanks!

[Anónimo]

Rachel,

It’s a great idea to get the media and PIO involved. Any success we have had in Arizona with the media has been the result of our PIO unit working with them. We did test Silver Alerts on WEA in conjunction with the media and public. We set up a press conference for the WEA and the media put out the information a week prior to the test. The public who opted into receiving the test alerts were also asked to fill out a survey about the WEA. Ultimately the feedback from the public was they didn’t want a WEA for every Silver Alert even if the WEA’s were by county. We ended up only utilizing WEA’s for Amber and Blue alerts. The Silver Alerts are sent by EAS to the media as an administrative message. Even with only Blue and Amber alerts going out through WEA we still get complaints from the public when they go live.

[Autor]

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