As a reminder, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), in coordination with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), will conduct a nationwide test of the Emergency Alert System (EAS) and Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) system—Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS)—on Wednesday, October 3, 2018.

The test, as recently explained by the two organizations, will assess the operational readiness of the infrastructure for distribution of a national message and determine whether technological improvements are needed. This is the fourth EAS nationwide test and the first national WEA test.

The WEA portion of the test commences at 2:18 p.m. Eastern, and the EAS portion follows at 2:20 p.m. Eastern.

The WEA message will display on mobile devices as a Presidential Alert and will read:  THIS IS A TEST of the National Wireless Emergency Alert System. No action is needed. The EAS portion of the test, which will last about a minute, will verify the delivery and broadcast of a national test message via TV and radio.

For more information about the nationwide test, visit https://www.fema.gov/emergency-alert-test.