Nationwide—FEMA, in coordination with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), will conduct a nationwide test of the Emergency Alert System (EAS) today at 2:20 p.m. EDT. The test will assess the operational readiness of the infrastructure for the distribution of a national message and determine whether improvements are needed.
This is the fifth EAS nationwide test. Previous EAS national tests were conducted on November 2011, September 2016 and 2017, and October 2018, in collaboration with the FCC, radio and televisions stations, and emergency management officials.
The intent of this year’s test is to evaluate the readiness of the national alerting capability in the absence of internet connectivity.
