Heather Curtis
WMAL.com
WASHINGTON (WMAL) – At 10 a.m. Thursday all jurisdictions in the National Capital Region will push out a wireless emergency alert. Sometime between 10 and 11 a.m. your phone will make a really loud noise. Then you’ll get a message that says, “A test of the < local jurisdiction name> Emergency Alert System. No action required.”
Sulayman Brown with Fairfax County’s Office of Emergency Management said everyone will get a test alert because all phones come ready to receive them.
“It allows the federal government and local emergency managers the ability to reach you via your cell phone,” Brown said.
The alert can get information out to people no matter where they are during serious emergencies or large-scale events including terrorist attacks.
Brown said testing allows them to work out kinks to prevent problems including accidental alerts, like the one sent out in Hawaii in January warning of an incoming ballistic missile.
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