• BY FEDERAL EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AGENCY

MERIDIAN TOWNSHIP, MI - Cell phone users may receive an emergency alert on their devices at 2:20 pm on Wednesday, but there is no reason to panic.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is coordinating with the Federal Communication Commission to send out practice emergency alert tests.

In a tweet, FEMA states the test will not only appear on specially configured cell phones, but on televisions and radios as well. Since this alert is a test, no further action is needed.

The nationwide test will include the use of the Emergency Alert System (EAS) and Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA).

According to the FEMA website, the Emergency Alert System (EAS) is a national public warning system that requires radio and TV broadcasters, cable TV, wireless cable systems, satellite and wireline operators to provide the President with capability to address the American people within 10 minutes during a national emergency.

The EAS national test is not much different than monthly tests typically conducted by state authorities.

The FEMA website describes Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEAs) as short emergency messages from authorized federal, state, local, tribal and territorial public alerting authorities that can be broadcast from cell towers to any WEA‐enabled mobile device in a locally targeted area.