Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Nationwide EAS test - it was a test

Well, that is what tests are for, right? Obviously, the first ever nationwide test of the emergency alert system had some difficulties today. Some stations did not receive the message from FEMA, some had no audio or garbled audio and some stations ran the test just fine.

FEMA and the FCC were testing this nationwide code system in order to find out what works and what didn't. The message went directly from FEMA to the state distribution points. Oregon Office of Emergency Management is NOT a distribution point. We will, however, work with the Federal Government as needed to make the system work properly in the future.

The good news is that the state system works perfectly and Oregonians will always get the messages through our local system.