Wireless Emergency Alerts System is tested in the Washingtonian-area

Around 10:00 AM on Thursday, millions of cell phones across 20 Washington-area jurisdictions beeped to an emergency alert test issued by local emergency managers in coordination with the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments. The test of the Wireless Emergency Alerts System was intended to reach all cellphones in the region.

Officials estimated the alert would reach around 5.2 million people in the region. However, the successfulness of the test was not immediately clear. Sulayman Brown, Fairfax County’s assistant coordinator of the Office of Emergency Management and the project manager for Thursday’s exercise, emphasized how the alert was only the beginning of the process.

After the test was conducted, the Office of Emergency Management sent a questionnaire to community alert networks. “Now we need people to take our survey and answer some questions,” Brown said. “That will give us some good data to look at.”

The test on Thursday was the first of its kind in the D.C. area. It was the first attempt to coordinate alerts across multiple regions. In the past, similar tests have only been conducted over smaller areas.

The response to the alert was mixed. Some residents complained about not receiving any alerts while others others received multiple alerts over the course of the test. Brown explained, “[Multiple regions experienced] technical issues.” These problems caused some regions to miss the intended alert time of 10:00 AM.

Jermaine Washington, a local resident, complained about the repeated notifications he was receiving.

“They’ve been doing this all day,” he said.  

Romelo Wood, another D.C. resident, received no alerts. “It feels kind of crazy,” he said. He was terrified over the possibility of not being notified in the case of an actual emergency. Wood and Washington were confused over the seemingly sporadic alerts because both had the same mobile carrier and were in the same location.

Brown explained that the residents receiving multiple alerts were probably experiencing locality bleedover. This means some people receive notifications from multiple municipalities.

Another reason for the multiple notifications was that some residents were traveling from one jurisdiction to another during the hour testing period. The alert was sent based on which cell tower the phone was connected to over the hour long period.

Brown also provided explanations for members not receiving any notifications. “Depending on where they are, as far as cell towers are concerned, it’s possible they were experiencing a slight overload of the system,” he said. “It could be the settings on their own phone or the type of phone they have. Androids and iPhones react differently.”

Brown advised residents who did not receive alerts to contact their cellular service provider and notify their local office of emergency management. Local community alert managers also sent out Thursday surveys asking residents to provide feedback on the effectiveness of the test.  

Ultimately, the test was only a trial which will make future tests more effective and successful. “We think it was a successful test,” Brown said.  “Once we get all the data, we’re going to be able to improve on the emergency alert system. That was the purpose.”

Article by MoCo Student staff writer Bilal Choudry of Winston Churchill High School