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Emergency Alert System

The Emergency Alert System (EAS) is a national warning system in the United States designed to allow authorized officials to broadcast emergency alerts and warning messages to the public via cable, satellite and broadcast television and both AM, FM and satellite radio. Informally, Emergency Alert System is sometimes conflated with its mobile phone counterpart Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA), a different but related system. However, both the EAS and WEA, among other systems, are coordinated under the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS). The EAS, and more broadly IPAWS, allows federal, state, and local authorities to efficiently broadcast emergency alert and warning messages across multiple channels.[1] The EAS became operational on January 1, 1997, after being approved by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in November 1994,[2] replacing the Emergency Broadcast System (EBS), and largely supplanted Local Access Alert systems, though Local Access Alert systems are still used from time to time. Its main improvement over the EBS, and perhaps its most distinctive feature, is its application of a digitally encoded audio signal known as Specific Area Message Encoding (SAME), which is responsible for the characteristic "screeching" or "chirping" sounds at the start and end of each message. The first signal is the "header" which encodes, among other information, the alert type and locations, or the specific area that should receive the message. The last short burst marks the end-of-message. These signals are read by specialized encoder-decoder equipment. This design allows for automated station-to-station relay of alerts to only the area the alert was intended for.

Not to be confused with Wireless Emergency Alerts, Emergency Warning Broadcast system, Emergency Warning System, or Emergency Broadcast System.

Type

United States

All broadcast television stations and cable systems

77 designated Primary Entry Point (PEP) stations. All commercial radio stations

Varies; nationwide for national activation, limited to 31 counties (and equivalents) or states at a time for regional activation

January 1, 1997 (January 1, 1997)

Like the Emergency Broadcast System, the system is primarily designed to allow the President of the United States to address the country via all radio and television stations in the event of a national emergency. Despite this, neither the system nor its predecessors have been used in this manner. The ubiquity of news coverage in these situations, such as during the September 11 attacks, has been credited to making usage of the system unnecessary or redundant.[3] In practice, it is used at a regional scale to distribute information regarding imminent threats to public safety, such as severe weather situations (including flash floods and tornadoes), AMBER Alerts, and other civil emergencies.


It is jointly coordinated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The EAS regulations and standards are governed by the Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau of the FCC. All broadcast television, broadcast and satellite radio stations, as well as multichannel video programming distributors (MVPDs), are required to participate in the system.

Station requirements[edit]

The FCC requires all broadcast stations and multichannel video programming distributors (MVPD), hereafter "EAS participants", to install and maintain FCC-certified EAS decoders and encoders at their control points or headends. These decoders continuously monitor the signals from other nearby broadcast stations for EAS messages. For reliability, at least two source stations must be monitored, one of which must be a designated local primary. Participants are to retain the latest version of the EAS handbook.


EAS participants are required by federal law to relay National Emergency Messages (EAN, formerly Emergency Action Notification) immediately (47 CFR Part 11.54).[65] Broadcasters traditionally have been allowed to opt out of relaying other alerts such as severe weather, and child abduction emergencies (AMBER Alerts) if they so choose. In practice, television stations with local news departments will usually interrupt regularly-scheduled programming during newsworthy situations (such as severe weather) to provide extended coverage.[66]


If possible, EAS participants must transmit the audio,[64] and (where applicable) a visual display containing the extended text, from the associated CAP message.[61][62]


EAS participants are required to keep logs of all received messages. Logs may be kept by hand but are usually kept automatically by a small receipt printer in the encoder/decoder unit. Logs may also be kept electronically inside the unit as long as there is access to an external printer or method to transfer them to a computer.

Additions and proposals[edit]

The number of event types in the national system has grown to eighty. At first, all but three of the events (civil emergency message, immediate evacuation, and emergency action notification [national emergency]) were weather-related (such as a tornado warning). Since then, several classes of non-weather emergencies have been added, including, in most states, the AMBER Alert System for child abduction emergencies. In 2016, three additional weather alert codes were authorized for use in relation to hurricane events, including Extreme Wind Warning (EWW), Storm Surge Warning (SSW) and Storm Surge Watch (SSA).


In 2004, the FCC issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPR) seeking comment on whether EAS in its present form is the most effective mechanism for warning the American public of an emergency and, if not, on how EAS can be improved, such as mandatory text messages to cellphones, regardless of subscription. As noted above, rules implemented by the FCC on July 12, 2007 provisionally endorse incorporating CAP with the SAME protocol.


In November 2020, Congress passed the Reliable Emergency Alert Distribution Improvement (READI) Act.[89] First sponsored by Hawaii Senator Brian Schatz in response to the Hawaii false missile alert, it amends the Warning, Alert, and Response Network (WARN) Act to require distribution of wireless alerts issued by the administrator of FEMA, and commands the FCC to establish a means of reporting false alerts, encourage the establishment of State Emergency Communications Committees (SECC) that would meet annually to evaluate their EAS plans, require the repetition of alerts surrounding "emergencies of national significance", and open an inquiry into the feasibility of implementing the EAS on internet-related services.[90][91][92][93][94][95]

Limitations[edit]

The EAS can only be used to relay audio messages that preempt all programming; as the intent of an Emergency Action Notification is to serve as a "last-ditch effort to get a message out if the president cannot get to the media", it can easily be made redundant by the immediate and constant coverage that major weather events and other newsworthy situations—such as, most prominently, the September 11 attacks in 2001—receive from television broadcasters and news channels. Following the attacks, then-FCC chairman Michael K. Powell cited "the ubiquitous media environment" as justification for not using the EAS in their immediate aftermath. Glenn Collins of The New York Times acknowledged these limitations, noting that "no president has ever used the current [EAS] system or its technical predecessors in the last 50 years, despite the Soviet missile crisis, a presidential assassination, the Oklahoma City bombing, major earthquakes and three recent high-alert terrorist warnings", and that using it would have actually hindered the availability of live coverage from media outlets.[3][96]


Following the tornado outbreak of March 3, 2019, Birmingham, Alabama NWS meteorologist Kevin Laws told CNN that he, personally, wished that alerts could be updated in real-time in order to reflect the unpredictable nature of weather events, noting that the storm system's unexpected change in trajectory towards Lee County resulted in only a nine-minute warning (the resulting tornado would kill 23 people).[90]


The trend of cord cutting has led to concerns that viewers' lessened use of broadcast media in favor of streaming video services would inhibit their ability to receive emergency information (notwithstanding availability of alerts on mobile phones).[90][91] The READI Act called for an inquiry into the distribution of alerts via internet platforms.[90]

On February 1, 2005 in , an alert was mistakenly issued calling for the immediate evacuation of the entire state. The alert contained no specific detail on why it had been issued. The message was broadcast due to operator error while conducting an unannounced, but scheduled statewide test. A study conducted following the incident reported that at least 11% of residents actually saw the warning live, and that 63% of those surveyed were "a little or not at all concerned"—citing a suspicious lack of detail in the message, which a legitimate alert would include. Only 1% of those surveyed actually attempted to leave the state. Connecticut State Police did not receive any calls related to the incident.[97][98][99]

Connecticut

On June 26, 2007 at 7:35 a.m. , an Emergency Action Notification was accidentally issued in Illinois, when a new satellite receiver at the state's EOC was accidentally connected to a live system before final internal testing of the new delivery path had been completed. The alert was followed by dead air, and then audio from designated station 720 WGN in Chicago being simulcast across almost every television and radio station in the Chicago area and throughout much of Illinois. A confused Spike O'Dell, host of the station's morning show at the time, was heard on-air wondering "what that beeping was all about".[100][101]

CDT

On May 19, 2010, and CSEPP tone alert radios in the Hermiston, Oregon area, near the Umatilla Chemical Depot, were activated with an EAS alert shortly after 5 p.m. The message transmitted was for a severe thunderstorm warning, issued by the National Weather Service in Pendleton, but the transmission broadcast instead was a long period of silence, followed by a few words in Spanish. Umatilla County Emergency Management has stressed there was no emergency at the depot.[102]

NOAA Weather Radio

On September 3, 2016, in the wake of , an alert was displayed on television calling for the immediate evacuation of the entirety of Suffolk County, abruptly ending with the incomplete sentence "This is an emergency message from". About 15 minutes after the original message was sent, the alert was re-issued with an addendum clarifying that the alert was actually calling for a voluntary evacuation of Fire Island—a barrier island of Long Island. Officials cited an error in the county's Code Red system; while the correct message was entered into the system, an error processing an abbreviated message for television resulted in the error.[103][104]

Tropical Storm Hermine

On May 23, 2017, at around 8:55 p.m. , a Nuclear Power Plant Warning was issued for the Hope Creek and Salem Nuclear Power Plants. The alert was issued for Salem and Cumberland counties in New Jersey. In a statement by the New Jersey State Police, it was a test message, intended for a small group of emergency management personnel who were participating in the test. Due to a coding error, the message was publicly broadcast. This would happen again, in July 2022.[105]

EDT

On August 15, 2017 at approximately 12:25 a.m. , Guam stations KTWG and KSTO transmitted a civil danger warning for the island; Guam Homeland Security described the message, which interrupted programming on the stations, and was received on television by some viewers, as being an "unauthorized test" of the EAS. The incident's impact was strengthened, as North Korea had threatened the launch of ballistic missiles towards Guam only a few days beforehand. Numerous calls to 911 operators and the Department of Homeland Security were made following the broadcast.[106][107]

ChST

(Canada)

Alert Ready

Cell Broadcast

(DEAS)

Digital Emergency Alert System

Earthquake Early Warning (Japan)

Emergency population warning

Emergency Public Warning System

Flash Flood Guidance Systems

(UK's former National Attack Warning System)

HANDEL

's TEAC (Transfer Emergency Action Contact) channel in cases of URL hijacking

ICANN

(Japan)

J-Alert

Local Access Alert

(Mexico's Earthquake Early Warning System, which also employs Specific Area Message Encoding technology)

Mexican Seismic Alert System

National Severe Weather Warning Service

National Warning System

NOAA Weather Radio

Nuclear football

Nuclear MASINT

Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service

ShakeAlert

Specific Area Message Encoding

(Australia)

Standard Emergency Warning Signal

Wartime Broadcasting Service

Weatheradio Canada

(WEA)

Wireless Emergency Alerts

Consumer facts page

FCC notice regarding possible improvements