Pre-Dawn Wireless Emergency Alert Wakes Up NYC

New submitter SkiTee94 writes "Many people, perhaps millions, in and around NYC were loudly awoken shortly before 4am this morning by an activation of the Wireless Emergency Alert system. As the New York Times is reporting, the alert was related to an ongoing search for a missing child. Given that the alert asked people to look out for a 'Tan Lexus ES300' with NY Plate 'GEX1377,' many New Yorkers are questioning the logic of waking up the whole city to ask them to look for a car. Normally such alerts are reserved for road-side signs. While emergency authorities have yet to give a precise reason for why the decision was made to wake up the city, many have taken the step of deactivating these alerts to avoid future jolting mid-slumber alarms (likely not the intended result of last night's exercise)."

Comments

Wait till we starte getting OBAMA ALERTS!

[WCMI92]

The "presidential" alerts CANNOT be disabled, and no doubt will share the same LOUD EBS tone the Amber Alerts do.

OBAMA ALERT! "Some TEA Partier in YOUR vicinity has been TAKING MY NAME in vain!"

In my area we were getting spammed with Amber Alerts for a non custodial parent who took his child in Cleveland, OH.

Cleveland, OH is 300 miles from where I am! What is the sense in that?

I did turn them off, but a friend of mine with kids shamed me into turning amber alerts back on.