It’s a test, it is only a test, but at 2 p.m. today, Wednesday, November 9, there will be the first simultaneously national test of the Emergency Alert System. Just as with the local and state tests you grew up with, radio and TV broadcasters will be required to turn over their airwaves for a short message about emergency preparedness.
But in doing so, the test, which was ordered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Federal Communications Commission, will miss the communications resources that much of the population uses these days: Web sites, e-mails, social media and cell phones. While Verona has just implemented a reverse 911 system called Nixle that can send messages to cell and land lines, as well as Twitter, there is no such component to today’s federal test.
