Tsunami Warning Issued For East, Gulf Coasts Was Error

A tsunami warning was erroneously sent to residents of the east coast and the gulf coast Tuesday morning. The tsunami warning, that was intended to be a test by the National Weather Service, was mistakenly sent out as a push alert by Accuweather.

The NWS' various local offices reported via Twitter that there was no tsunami threat for the east coast or for the gulf coast. Various people reported getting the alert via the Accuweather app, according to photos posted to social media.

"This morning AccuWeather passed on a National Weather Service Tsunami Warning that was intended by the NWS to be a test but was miscoded by the NWS as a real warning," AccuWeather said in a statement. The company said that once it learned it was a false flag, it alerted users that there was no tsunami warning.

In its statement, AccuWeather pushed the responsibility on to the NWS, saying the message even appeared on some NWS pages as a legitimate message. According to AccuWeather, the words 'TEST" were in the NWS warning's header but the codes read by its computers indicated it was a real warning. AccuWeather also claimed that it advised the NWS in 2014 about this problem and said it was not the first time the government service used legitimate warning coding erroneously in an alert.

In a statement to NBC News, the NWS said the test message was not sent to the public via any communications channels operated by them.

Lead image provided by Buff N Stuff