HOUSTON — An alert will go out to cellphones, radios and televisions on Wednesday afternoon.
Why should you be prepared for a national emergency test?
Around 1:20 p.m. Houston time, every television, radio and cellphone will broadcast a message. It will be something along the lines of, "This is a test of the National Wireless Emergency Alert System."
As you can probably guess from that message, the whole point of this is to test the national alert system to make sure it's ready for a real emergency. It's being run by FEMA and the Federal Communications Commission.
But, there is another purpose to the test. It's only the second time it has been sent to cell phones and the federal government wants to make sure the public is aware of what it is before it has to be used in a real emergency.
According to disaster experts, warnings like these are only useful if people know what they are and what to do if they get one.
So, can you opt out of it? Newer models of phones often come with an option to silence tests and alerts, but according to FEMA, none of those options will work with this national test. According to them, your only option to avoid the alert is to turn off your phone or put it in airplane mode.