Securely Travel endorses the national Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) system

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Today, 03 October 2018, at exactly 1418 hours EDT (2:18 PM EDT) Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA) in coordination with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will be conducting a nationwide test of the Emergency Alert System (EAS) and the Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA).

UPDATE: 1500 hours EDT (3:00 PM EDT) FEMA successfully tested the WEA as scheduled at 1418 hours EDT, the test message was transmitted the millions of wireless devices nationwide, as well as via the EAS through radio and television. This is the first successful test of the nationwide WEA.

According to FEMA, the test will last approximately one minute.

This will be the first nationwide test of the Wireless Emergency Alert system, which together with the EAS, which we are accustomed to seeing and hearing on our televisions and radios, will enable FEMA to reach the generation of citizens and residents in the United States who are untethered and receive their information via wireless devices.

History has shown following natural disasters the ability to transmit text messages (SMS) in a highly saturated environment is superior and has a higher degree of success than do voice communications. As with Amber Alerts, you have the capability to turn off the reception of these alerts at your individual device.

Securely Travel Endorses the Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA)

We at Securely Travel look forward to the nationwide implementation of the WEA as a part of the nationwide EAS system, and support this test and additional testing as necessary.

This is the fourth nationwide test of the EAS system, those tests reached those who were listening to the radio or watching a television. As such, the EAS alerts did not reach a wide swath of the nation, those who didn’t have on their radios or televisions. With the implementation of the WEA, 80 percent of the population of the U.S. is reachable in time of emergency via their mobile devices.

Regional EAS systems work, as evidenced by the warnings which are currently shared when areas are threatened by Tsunami, Tornado, Flash Flooding, Hurricanes, Typhoons, Dust Storms, Blizzards, etc.

In addition, this system will be able to assist the AMBER Alerts (America’s Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response), in coordination with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

The FEMA’s WEA system has been a long time coming, and is sorely needed on a regional and national level.

For this reason, we endorse and encourage all who are within the geographic boundaries of the United States, especially those traveling more than 100 miles from their residence, to always have their device set to ACCEPT the EAS and WEA messages.

Alerts of a different type exist in the commercial world.While EAS and WEA will provide alerts which touch the nation as a whole, a more focused alert system is commercially available. Which is our partner, AlertsUSA.com, who generates incident specific SMS and email alerts focused on national security and homeland security incidents which happened in the United States and abroad.

Much has been made about the fact that the test permits the President of the United States to send a text message to the nation. Indeed, three individuals in New York find this offensive, and have filed suit to stop FEMA from testing this nationwide capability.

We at Securely Travel do not support the plaintiffs, and assess their lawsuit as both wrong-headed and certainly not in the public interest. This is in our opinion nothing more than political grandstanding. However, for the sake of completeness and to allow our readers to make their own assessment, we avail a copy of these individuals’ complaint which has been uploaded to Securely Travel and can be read by clicking on the graphic below.