Emergency Alert System

This section contains information on the Emergency Alert System (EAS), a resilient form of emergency alert notification, and the National EAS Test that was designed to assess the President’s ability to send a message to the American people within 10 minutes of a disaster.

IPAWS National Test of the Emergency Alert System
Wednesday, September 28th, 2016 at 2:20pm EDT

FEMA’s IPAWS will hold a national test of the Emergency Alert System (EAS) on Wednesday, September 28th, 2016 at 2:20pm EDT.  The National Periodic Test (NPT) code, which is used to distribute the national test, is similar to the Regular Monthly test (RMT) code that generates a brief EAS message on radio, TV, and cable indicating a test of the EAS is in progress.  The NPT test code will be sent from FEMA’s alerting infrastructure, known as IPAWS, and relayed through all aspects of the EAS. The test message will be the same as a typical monthly EAS test message, with one exception: the word “National” will be added to the test message.

The goal of the mandatory test is to assess the operational readiness and effectiveness of the IPAWS infrastructure for distribution of a national-level message to the public.  A second goal is to implement a standard method for regular alert and warning tests which help to improve the national preparedness posture.  The test is expected to have limited impact on the public with only minor disruptions of radio and television programs.  Only the EAS will be tested in this nationwide test. Cell phone and other FEMA alerting capabilities will not be tested during this event.

In the event of an unforeseen circumstance, such as a major weather event, the back-up date for the IPAWS National Test is Wednesday, October 5th at 2:20pm EDT.

Resilient public alert and warning tools are essential to save lives and protect property during times of national, state, regional, and local emergencies.  The Emergency Alert System (EAS) is used by alerting authorities to send warnings via broadcast, cable, satellite, and wireline communications pathways.  EAS participants, which consist of broadcast, cable, satellite, and wireline providers, are the stewards of this important public service in close partnership with alerting officials at all levels of government.  The EAS is also used when all other means of alerting the public are unavailable, providing an added layer of resiliency to the suite of available emergency communication tools.  The EAS is in a constant state of improvement to ensure seamless integration of CAP-based and emerging technologies.

A technical malfunction occurred at the National Primary level that introduced a second set of Emergency Action Notification (EAN) headers into the system. This affected the audio quality for many downstream stations and in some cases, resulted in duplicated messages or muted the audio test message. Due to the technical malfunction, an echo effect in the message was heard and preceded by several EAS tones.

FEMA is very committed to mitigating these issues through scientific testing at the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS) Lab at the Joint Interoperability Test Command (JITC). The duplicative technical malfunction that occurred has already been addressed, and FEMA will continue to make improvements through regular exercising and testing of the system.

The test revealed several successes:

• All PEP stations were connected during the test and over 90 percent were able to receive and relay the EAS message.
• The majority of EAS participants across the country were able to receive and relay the test message.
• Active participation of the EAS community assisted in station and facility-level improvements before and after the test.
• The EAS community took a proactive role in informing a FEMA IPAWS EAS Best Practices Guide and provided the public with information about the test.
• The test elevated public awareness, providing important information on EAS within the landscape of public alert and warning.

The test revealed some key lessons learned:

• Outreach to the EAS community is essential to communicate expectations, develop EAS device best practices, and reinforce the purpose of testing.
• When all technical areas of the system are properly addressed, the National EAS functions as intended, but there is stil room for improvement. 
• Regular and frequent testing of the EAS is essential to identify mitigation strategies for a more resilient and effective system.
• Improving the EAS is a process that takes time and requires a coordinated effort of diverse participants at multiple levels with varying roles and responsibilities.
• Coordinated state and territory-wide EAS tests in Alaska, the Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, and Nevada were essential to understand the limitations of EAS well in advance of the nationwide test.

Initial reports indicate that approximately 80 percent of EAS participants across the country were able to receive and relay the test message. Please visit the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau for information and updates.

In coordination with the FCC, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and other Federal partners, FEMA is committed to communicating the next test date and is currently in the planning and coordination phase. Future EAS testing will integrate other technologies for a more resilient and effective system.

FEMA, in coordination with Federal partners and EAS participants, will continue to provide timely information updates through virtual roundtables, webinars, conferences, and other events. Please sign up for our email subscription list to receive information on upcoming events, webinars, and other related activities.

The next test will assess the effectiveness of mitigation strategies and the successfulness of implementing the EAS Test After-Action Report and Improvement Plan recommendations.  

The EAS Best Practices Guide was created in partnership with EAS participants to support incremental improvements by providing basic guidelines for EAS operation and maintenance.

EAS Best Practices Guide