This report was originally published by Daisy Luther at The Organic Prepper
In 2018, there have been at least 4 false alarms that have drummed up panic for no reason at all. It makes you wonder, what’s with all these false alarms? And how can we actually trust an alert that comes to our phone from the Emergency Alert System at all?
Hawaii
The first, of course, was Hawaii, on January 13th. That one scared me personally since one of my dearest friends lives there and I knew it was a time when she wouldn’t be up yet in the morning. I frantically tried to reach her and finally woke her up to tell her the news. A missile was on the way to Hawaii and it was NOT a drill.
The message was sent to cell phones and broadcast on TV and radio stations with the chilling message that residents were to take shelter immediately. Warning sirens went off at resorts and hotels.
It was bedlam in many parts of the island state. Parents were shoving their children into storm drains. After 47 minutes of terror, another alert told the panicked islanders that this had been a false alarm.
It turns out that an employee “hit the wrong button” and sent out the alert. However, people affected were reasonably furious that it took so long to correct the error.
Maine
The false alarm in Hawaii was barely out of the headlines when another inaccurate alert was sent to residents of Maine. The alert warned people in the coastal city of Portland that a tsunami was incoming.
(source)
While it’s not impossible for a coastal town to be threatened by a tsunami, it’s incredibly rare on the East Coast and Maine has suffered only minor events historically. The biggest tsunami wave ever recorded there was 10 feet high in 1926. It flooded the harbor but there were no deaths.
Despite this, residents near the water were quite rightfully alarmed. It turned out that this was a test message that somehow was accidentally sent as a push notification. AccuWeather and the National Weather Service have both pointed the finger for the error to the other agency.
“Tsunami warnings are handled with the utmost concern by AccuWeather and it has sophisticated algorithms to scan the entire message, not just header words, as from the time of a warning to the actual event can be mere minutes,” the statement said. “AccuWeather was correct in reading the mistaken NWS codes embedded in the warning. The responsibility is on the NWS to properly and consistently code the messages, for only they know if the message is correct or not.”
…The National Tsunami Warning Center said it did not issue a tsunami warning, watch or advisory for any part of the United States or Canada Tuesday morning. The center, based in Palmer, Alaska, issues monthly tests to regional weather offices.
Officials said it appeared to be an issue only with the Accuweather app. (source)
Alaska
The tsunami warning a few months later in Alaska held a lot more weight since the area is prone to seismic activity and in an area where tsunamis are a more realistic threat.
In May, a truncated version of a test message was sent in error and broadcast by local radio and TV stations. This one did not go to the phones of local residents but was picked up by the media. Because it was abbreviated, the words “this is a test” did not show up and therefore were not broadcast.
What makes matters worse is that earlier in the year, when there was actually a threat after a 7.9 earthquake hit the Gulf of Alaska, the tsunami warning that should have gone out to coastal residents was not received by some Alaskan broadcasters and wireless companies.
Oregon
Then a couple of days ago, the system in Oregon sent out a mysterious message to Salem residents that had them puzzled and alarmed.
And that was it – no further information was included. Just that there was an emergency and that they should “prepare for action.”
Andrew Phelps, the head of Oregon’s emergency management agency, apologized for the “glitch.” It turns out that this time there actually was a critical situation of which people needed to be aware.
Phelps said late Tuesday that a technical glitch had cut off crucial information: that the alert concerned elevated levels of a natural toxin in a local reservoir. Children and people with compromised immune systems have been told not to drink tap water in the Salem, Oregon, area after an algae bloom caused the spike.
“The integrated public alert warning system inadvertently defaulted to a generic message,” Phelps said in a video posted on the social media by the Office of Emergency Management. “I apologize for the confusion and the anxiety this incomplete message has caused.” (source)
Of course, this message left people’s minds racing about the nature of the emergency. Some people were afraid to go outside, fearing an active shooter, while others feared a terror attack. And it turns out, even the agency that sent the alert was baffled, taking 31 minutes to follow up with a message that provided some clarity as to the nature of the emergency.
Confusion surrounded the initial alert even within the emergency management agency, with a spokesperson telling reporters the message had caught them unawares and state police asking residents via a Facebook post not to call 911 about the alert. (source)
At that point, people were in panic mode. Stores were quickly emptied of their water supplies and chaos was left in shoppers’ wakes. A reader local to the area sent me a message telling of what had ensued.
I live in Salem Oregon. This evening at 8:30 pm phones across my state went nuts. We received a vague emergency message. A civil emergency is what they called it. You read that and I don’t care who you are, your attention has been grasped.
With power still running I took to social media. My feed was hot. People were freaking out. No one knew what was going on. Finally, word spread and we discovered our tap water is tainted. With toxic algae! They say safe for adults. (Ummm, no thanks). You can’t boil it away. It’s a firm “don’t give kids under 6, elderly, pets, medically compromised, pregnant, and nursing women any tap water.” Period.
At 9 pm we received a far more clear emergency text. And the police took to Facebook as evidently 911 was swamped. Its all over the news. Shelves are empty. People are frightened and panicking and it has only been an hour.
The Emergency Alert System is not working very well.
The Emergency Alert System (EAS) is overseen by the FCC and can be dispatched locally or even at the national level.
The Emergency Alert System (EAS) is a national public warning system that requires broadcasters, cable television systems, wireless cable systems, satellite digital audio radio service (SDARS) providers, and direct broadcast satellite (DBS) providers to provide the communications capability to the President to address the American public during a national emergency. The system also may be used by state and local authorities to deliver important emergency information, such as AMBER alerts and weather information targeted to specific areas.
The FCC, in conjunction with Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Weather Service (NWS), implements the EAS at the federal level. The President has sole responsibility for determining when the EAS will be activated at the national level, and has delegated this authority to the director of FEMA. FEMA is responsible for implementation of the national-level activation of the EAS, tests, and exercises. The NWS develops emergency weather information to alert the public about imminent dangerous weather conditions. (source)
The EAS, while a great idea, is sending out so many false alarm warnings that one has to wonder if people will even pay attention in an actual emergency. Theories abound as to why the false alarms are happening, with people pointing fingers toward a wide variety of possibilities:
- Human error
- Deliberate manipulation to panic people into being better prepared
- A cover-up for a system that was hacked
- In the case of Hawaii, an actual emergency that was quietly diverted
- Systems errors
But one thing is sure. There are only so many false alarms that can be sent out before the EAS loses all effectiveness. Pretty soon, if not already, people will just roll their eyes and carry on with their days instead of taking action. And if that’s the case, our apathetic society will become even less interested in being prepared for emergencies. There are only so many times you can be spurred to panic for no reason until you’re immune to that particular voice crying “wolf.”
One day when a real disaster is inbound, nobody will pay attention to what is “probably” just another false alarm.
What do you think?
What do you think is going on with the Emergency Alert System? Why is there such a prevalence of false alarms this year? How much credibility would you give a warning like these if you received one out of the blue?
Please feel free to share any information from this article in part or in full, giving credit to the author and including a link to The Organic Prepper and the following bio.
Daisy Luther is the author of The Pantry Primer: A Prepper’s Guide To Whole Food on a Half Price Budget. Her website, The Organic Prepper, offers information on healthy prepping, including premium nutritional choices, general wellness and non-tech solutions. You can follow Daisy on Facebook and Twitter, and you can email her at [email protected]</e
The message prepare for action speaks for its self. It may have been sent in error but it was the message for those in the know. We must seriously consider that a coup is being set up. The media would have been the obvious choice for telling the people about bad water. they have a better coverage of the people Every coup has a code signal they send out to alert the action force to the coup. Consider it carefully They have plans to take over by force of arms
This is a test….This is only a test. In the event of a real emergency, you are on your own.
who is they ?
I think it’s to study how the public reacts to EAS. Also I’m a firm believer that the intentions are to condition us to them, that way it seems semi normal when something really bad happens (I’m thinking false flag on this, or grid down with an invasion). It’s all about population control and conditioning us to think certain things that aren’t normal are normal. The easiest way to control people is dumbing them down and keeping them in a perpetual state of fear and paranoia.
Best comment. Surmises a reality unrecognizable to the masses.
THEY are testing what the Sheep will do when crying Wolf . We The People on the other Hand already are aware and will not Panic for our Firm Reliance on the Protection of Divine Providence is our Strength We are what the Founders envisioned INDEPENDENT AMERICANS.
that, exactly. Folks are testing the wartes for one reason or another.
All I can say is stay together, stay prepped, and stay low key, we got this.
waters.
typo.
and I googled “wartes”
Noun
Wartes
genitive singular of Wart
Categories: German non-lemma forms
silly me 🙂
I have no idea why since I posted the correction immediately…
They are just running a test on the system – maybe instead of focussing on the warnings, you look behind the scenes – FEMA movements, national Guard movements etc.
It seems more than dodgy, more than a coincidence ….. this is deliberately done.
My view only.
Something else to consider. These warning systems are not working very well at all. I am guessing not very secure systems which make me thing in case of a war or terror attack how easy would it be to Hack / send a message”Everyone evacuate to meeting place ____”. At which time they attack that spot for maximum casualty/chaos! Seems very easy. Just think before you jump.
A password for the Hawaii emergency agency was hiding in a public photo, written on a Post-it note
http://www.businessinsider.com/hawaii-emergency-agency-password-discovered-in-photo-sparks-security-criticism-2018-1
Maybe states need to practice more,seems there are too many screwups. We don’t need screw ups in a real emergency. Cry wolf too many times and people will ignore the message. Ignore the message the government has the advantage in a false flag scenario.
While it scared the crap out of some people, maybe some people started thinking about preparedness for themselves and their families. Maybe some good came out of them.
Only alerts I see on the phone are amber alerts noting missing children in the area with a vehicle description sometimes added.
(I am not saying it is factually-so. Just idle conjecture.)
Within a single generation, that grade of human life, who falls for the Mark Dice gags, were fairly oblivious of 9-11, which is not to mention the once-a-week shelter-in-place, national press emergencies.
So, what is the need for any crisis actors, at all.
Can’t you just record that an event happened, bureaucratically?
Vulgar tv chef, Tony Bourdain, once said, in one Eastern European, s-hole country, no martial law was declared, formally. There were just drills in the commons. (I’m guessing there were no drunk and disorderly fights or carjackings, nearby soldier with live ammo.) But, why must you have a drill, or any security theater, at all, when most, normal, intellectually-lazy people will just remember whatever and say that the critical thinker is a defective.
Is it being recorded as fact. Just wondering. Also, will anyone realistically care, after 10ish yrs of memes, forum trolls, and reality tv.
I agree 100% with what MemoryWatchmen said. They are conditioning us, dumbing us down, so that we don’t pay attention when real threat happens. I also believe there will be a false flag event before long. At least 4 screw ups in just 4 1/2 months. Wow…
No need for alarms. The country has been in a continuous declared “state of emergency” since, most recently, 9-11.
Obama renewed it every year and Trump has also renewed it. It gives enormous executive power to the president. It allows for the use of armed forces on the streets.
See section 1076 of the NDAA, which was approved by all but one vote under Trump. I guess you know that lone dissenter is the only statesman in DC. His name is Paul.
Hmm. Is there no difference between hearing a false alarm and hearing about a false alarm?
Big country, 4 false alarms isn’t many.
Tptb are losing their grip over the information/propaganda war against America. They want to take away our guns and crack down Bolshevik like.
This is something of a test perhaps. “Take action”. I think what they want is continued inaction and general apathy.
But on the other hand, they want civil unrest, civil war, one of their perceived enemies fighting another of their perceived enemies; then it is game over. They really will declare martial law.
_
Preppers with bugout locations would be the most vulnerable to false alarms. Most of us are prepared to leave on short notice to try to beat the hordes fleeing the cities. Good practice though.
Personally, I believe it is a numbing program, conducted by someone foreign or domestic, to desensitize the populace into not trusting anything that comes out. Then when they decide to make their move, everyone will just ignore the warnings.
Tsunami alerts. Earthquake alerts. Nuclear attack alerts. Volcano alerts. How about economic collapse alerts? Riot alerts? Gun confiscation alerts. Liberal comedian alerts? For those events that are most probable, we are dependent on MSM! Good luck with that!
The Hawaii missile warning guy must be working multiple jobs.
maybe, just maybe they are hiring people that just do not give a poop about doing their job correctly. we have all seen this in business, some people just try to get by and do the least possible.
…Or, the people may see government as the perpetrator and whose power is sole beneficiary of whatever “emergency” is claimed or perpetrated by them to exist.
what I find curious is this: I work in a hospital and for the past year, we have been told that we need to be judicious with our pain meds because there is a “national shortage” of these medications due to the government supposedly cracking down on narcotic abuse. However, the shortage has only continued to get worse and now includes some antibiotics, as well as pain medication. It makes me wonder. I can’t really believe that the pharmaceutical companies are making less of the medications, so where are they going? (government stockpile perhaps). And taken with these repeated “system errors” it really give me pause for thought….. What is going on behind the scenes of our country and what do they know that we don’t?
I got a weather alert on my phone yesterday advising about flash flooded roads in the area. Before I finished reading it I was halfway to the door of the store dragging the missus with me. I carry a bob in my truck all the time. The missus bob sits on the dining room table. Ready to go anytime.
I don’t have a clue as to what is the deal with the false alarms but I am as prepped as an old man can reasonably be.
Regarding Hawaii, you can’t accidentally set off an alarm, the procedure is similar to launching nukes, 2 keys minimum 6 ft away turned simultaneously. There was a sub around those waters reported several days prior – the rabbit hole version is Israel lost a sub firing on Hawaii hoping to blame NK and commence WW3. Too many ff’s committed by them to doubt otherwise
I read an interesting conspiracy theory about the Hawaii false alert, if not true is still a great story. It goes like this.
The CIA/NSA etc has several super computers around the world that house all the recorded intelligence. Controlling this information allows you to control anyone the system has dirt on, and the deep state has been using it since its inception. The computers are named after Snow Whites seven dwarves.
The deep state has been working hard to lock the Trump administration out of the system. They were succeeding. When the incoming missile threat alert hit the super computer in Hawaii went into protective mode, backed itself up to the mainland. In doing so it triggered a reset that reopened the door for the Whitehouse.
There is an active civil war on in the US, we only see what the deep state propagandists in the MSM want us to see, and that is just a tip of the iceberg.
I’ve been trying to follow some of this, but it’s big and murky. We are living out the greatest spy novel ever written. I’m on the edge of my seat waiting for the IG report that’s due any day.