Phones In Massachusetts Will Buzz With FEMA Alerts Wednesday: Here's Why

MASSACHUSETTS — If your phone starts buzzing uncontrollably on Wednesday out of nowhere, don't worry: it's just the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

FEMA and the Federal Communications Commission on Wednesday will conduct a national test of the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System, also called IPAWS. It's a system federal and local officials can use in the event of a major emergency — but you've likely already experienced IPAWS-like alerts during Amber Alerts and even preceding the handful of tornadoes that hit Massachusetts this summer.

But Wednesday's trial is a little different because it's a test of the nation’s high-level “presidential” emergency alert system that would be activated in a nationwide emergency. According to 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.

Cellphone users can opt out of weather or Amber Alert notifications, 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.

Don’t believe conspiracy theories that have been floated around the FEMA's routine test of emergency broadcast systems. FEMA is not sending you particle robots or nefarious pieces of DNA code. And, no, it's not the same system depicted in the Gerard Butler disaster movie "Greenland."

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 14:20 to 14:50 hours ET. 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.