Your Phone Will Buzz Wednesday In Illinois: Here’s Why

ILLINOIS — Don’t freak out Wednesday when your cellphone, TV, or radio blares the jarring tone of an emergency alert shortly in the afternoon.

The alert, which is scheduled for 1:20 p.m. CST, is a planned test of the nation’s high-level “presidential” emergency alert system that would be activated in a nationwide emergency. According to rules in a 2006 law, such alerts can only be sent for national emergencies, or if the public were in peril, and cannot be used for any personal message from a president.

Don’t believe conspiracy theories that have been floated around the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s routine test of emergency broadcast systems.

FEMA has been busy knocking down disproven claims that the test is a ruse, a way for the government to activate graphene oxide and nanoparticles into people’s bodies. If that sounds familiar, it’s along the same line as the long-debunked conspiracy theories about the contents of the COVID-19 vaccine.

There are no known health threats associated with the signal, a FEMA spokesperson told The Associated Press.

The type of sound and volume of the alert will be similar to that of Amber Alerts for missing children or National Weather Service warnings on weather disasters. Cellphone users can opt out of either of those warnings, but cannot opt out of presidential alerts, which are issued at the direction of the White House and activated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Wednesday’s tests will consist of two portions:

The test of the Emergency Alert System, or EAS, which will send alerts to radios and televisions, will broadcast the following message:

• “This is a nationwide test of the Emergency Alert System, issued by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, covering the United States from 13:20 to 13:50 hours CST. This is only a test. No action is required by the public.”

The Wireless Emergency Alerts, or WEA, which will send alerts to cellphones. The WEA rest will display in either English or Spanish, depending on the language settings on a particular device. The text message alert will read:

• “THIS IS A TEST of the National Wireless Emergency Alert System. No action is needed,” or, if the language is set to Spanish, ““ESTA ES UNA PRUEBA del Sistema Nacional de Alerta de Emergencia. No se necesita acción.”

Only cellphones that are turned on will receive the WEA alert. Cellphones with both the ringtone and vibration features silenced will receive the alert. Phones set to Wi-Fi or airplane mode won’t receive the alert.

FEMA said the routine nationwide test is needed to ensure alert systems continue to be an effective way to warn the public about national emergencies. In the event of widespread severe weather or other significant events Wednesday, the system will be tested on the backup date, Oct. 11.

Federal law requires testing of national emergency alert systems every three years. The last nationwide test was on Aug. 11, 2021. The system was developed in the 1950s and was refined and expanded as Cold War tensions grew. The alert system itself was established through executive order by President John F. Kennedy in 1963 as a way for the government to use radio networks to warn the nation of an enemy attack.

There have been some misfires.

In 2018, the Hawaii Emergency Management System mistakenly sent an alert warning of a ballistic missile threat to the Hawaiian Islands. It took 38 minutes to clarify the user error.

Wednesday will mark the seventh EAS test and the third WEA test of the systems.