Phones, TVs In Hudson County To Be Affected By Emergency Alert Today, Cable Provider Says

HOBOKEN, NJ — Optimum Cable, Which serves several Hudson County towns, noted that cable TVs will be affected on Wednesday when the Federal Emergency Management tests its nationwide system to alert people in emergencies.

The test will also affect phones and other devices.

Optimum noted in an email Monday: "We're writing to you to let you know that FEMA and the FCC are testing the Emergency Alert System on the afternoon of Oct‌ober ‌4, ‌2023, ‌at approximately 2:‌20 ‌p.m. ‌ET. The emergency alert test message should last about 60 seconds. At that point, your channels will be temporarily interrupted. Once the test is complete, you may need to restart your equipment to resume watching TV."

FEMA had this information:

Test Messages Will be Sent to All TVs, Radios and Cell Phones

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) this fall.
The national test will consist of two portions, testing WEA and EAS capabilities. Both tests are scheduled to begin at approximately 2:20 p.m. ET on Wednesday, Oct. 4.

The WEA portion of the test will be directed to all consumer cell phones. This will be the third nationwide test, but the second test to all cellular devices. The test message willdisplay in either English or in Spanish, depending on the language settings of the wireless handset.

The EAS portion of the test will be sent to radios and televisions. This will be the seventh nationwide EAS test.

The purpose of the Oct. 4 test is to ensure that the systems continue to be effective means of warning the public about emergencies, particularly those on the national level.

In case the Oct. 4 test is postponed due to widespread severe weather or other significant events, the back-up testing date is Oct. 11.

The WEA portion of the test will be initiated using FEMA’s Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS), a centralized internet-based system.

Read more FEMA here.

Conspiracy Theories

Meanwhile, conspiracy theories have been spreading about the test. Read more about that here.