On November 9th, 2011 The federal government for the first time in history took over radio and television signals throughout the United States as part of their test of the new Emergency Alert System (EAS). The test was a complete failure.
Throughout the country people were either shown the wrong message, transferred to random television stations, or received their normal programming without interruption.
Before this first nationwide test, emergency alerts were controlled by local jurisdictions; they will now be controlled by the President himself with FEMA being responsible for sending out the EAS signals.
It’s good to know that our government and Homeland Security is so on top of this emergency preparedness thing.
A look at the EAS System’s 2011 Failed National Test
Here are some of the problems that were reported throughout the country.
Emergency Alert System test flawed by Audio Woes
Lady Gaga Broadcasted by DirectTV During the Test
And those that did hear the signal, reported hearing multiple messages or weird audio tones over the speaker that made it hard to understand the message.
You are on Your Own!
If you are one of those that thinks the government will be there for you during times of crisis, I have bad news for you; you are on your own!
I hope this will serve as a wake-up call of sorts. If the government can’t even send out a simple signal to the nation, in a day and age where everyone has access to the internet, cell phones, and technology that makes this old EAS system look like a joke, what do you think will happen during a real emergency?
EAS ALERT TO THE NATION
The real alert is the government is not ready! If this had been a real emergency, and you were counting on the government to help, you would be dead.
EAS Failure Reports
- Some areas of Southern California T.V. Broadcasts went dead for over 20 minutes
- Most areas of the country had a black screen.
- Many people are reporting that channels switched to a random channel and never switched back
- Some Time-Warner Cable customers are reporting that the test lasted for 25 minutes.
- Those that received the EAS Warnings reported overlapping signals, garbled unintelligible voices or completely different messages depending on what area of the country they lived in.
- Some DirecTV subscribers & Time Warner Cable customers are reporting that their T.V. played random pop songs during the test.
I was listening to Rush Limbaugh on 93.1 FM Indianapolis it worked then,the time was 1:59. I still think it is all a big joke.
I saw nothing…heard nothing…nothing at all up here in the Pacific NW….
I missed it completely. I was listening to a podcast. I think the emergency system is great for weather problems. You tend to pay attention when conditions are right. Is the entire country hooked into TV and radio every minute of every day? There is life to live people don’t let TV and radio be the channel you live it through.
Nothing on CNN, MSNBC, or FOX in NY (Long Island, Cablevision). Pisses me off too that none of the live news channels are addressing this in real time.
nothing happend here in mid-indiana
Down here in Dallas the radio station 105.3 warned us longer than the test lasted it went through 2 seconds of tones then shut off
This administration reminds me of a bunch of coke fueled wannabees sitting at the back table of a seedy disco in the 70s drawing unicorns and rainbows on cocktail napkins…..sad.
Yes, I was watching FoxNews and nothing happened. On the radio during Rush Limbaugh, it did work.
nothing happened portland 101 fm
Oh, yeah. I forgot about it. We were out doing chores and so missed it all. lol
it lasted for about a minute here,,,and then 20 minutes later our neighborhood had a power outage. i could only imagine what people around here would have though if that power outage would have happened just as the gov. started that emer. alert here.
this kinda takes ya back to pearl harbor, 1941 doesn’t it!
Nothing here in Missouri…
Nothing happened in DFW what do ya know thanks GOV!
Got it here in WI…appeared no problems. but then again, how would I know? Boy do I feel safe! $ well spent by our government again! doh’ k’
Here in Vegas on Broadcast TV [no cable, no satellite] there was no audio on ANY of the local network stations, and only 1 of the 4 [ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX] had a scroll. There was nothing on PBS and nothing on ANY of the side channels [i.e. 5.2]. Utter and complete FAIL.
It worked in Northern KY. I didn’t get a chance to watch it and see how it worked. I know that I heard it go off a couple of times later tho.
Our EAS System was ready. Pray.
Well that’s why it was a test, some one said “hey lets do a test to see how this would actually work in case of an emergancy” now they know and they can work on bugs, The first time around on anything has bugs and glitches to work out I for one hope that they do it more so that they can come together and things work like they are suppose to.
That of course doesn’t ment to let someone else take the rains on your safety, being prepared for emergancies is something that everyone should do.
just another example of government f-ing everything up.