When natural disasters or other critical events threaten public safety, communication is crucial to the outcome. Alerts and notifications, whether new or as situation updates, must be made quickly, correctly, and preferably through multiple modalities (e.g., phone, text, TV). To ensure the nation’s emergency communications readiness, FEMA, in coordination with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), will conduct a nationwide test of the Emergency Alert System (EAS) and Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) on Wednesday, October 4, 2023 

According to FEMA and the FCC, the national test will consist of testing EAS and WEA capabilities. Both tests are scheduled to begin at approximately 2:20 p.m. ET