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If your phone goes off with an alert sound late Wednesday morning, don’t grab your emergency kit and rush for the front door.
The B.C. Ministry of Emergency Management and Climate Readiness says it will issue a test of the province’s emergency alert system at 10:55 a.m. Pacific time on May 8, as part of Emergency Preparedness Week.
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The alert will go out to all compatible cellphones and will interrupt radio and TV broadcasts. It’s designed to assess the system’s readiness for an actual emergency and to identify any adjustments that might be needed.
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The alert system was expanded two years ago beyond tsunami warnings, and is now used to warn of imminent threats from floods, wildfires and extreme heat emergencies.
It is used when police have to issue an Amber Alert for a missing person, and when the federal government issues an alert for a threat under federal responsibility, such as tornadoes, severe thunderstorms, hurricanes and storm surges.
This spring, a system also launched to provide early warning in the event of an earthquake. It is designed to issue an alert within seconds of the start of an earthquake, before the strong shaking arrives.
During last year’s B.C. wildfire season, 24 emergency alerts were issued to put out timely information that had the potential to save lives.
Some things to know about the test:
• Cellphones must be connected to an LTE cellular network to get an alert, and it must be turned on and not in airplane mode.
• There is no cost to the user for receiving the alert.
• In a real emergency, an alert may be issued by the ministry on behalf of local governments or First Nations at their request.
• The CRTC mandates that all Canadian radio and television stations broadcast emergency alerts, and wireless service providers must be able to issue them.
• After the test, anyone in B.C. can complete a short online survey about the experience.
• The tests have been sent out since 2018 and are done twice a year in spring and fall.
• More information on emergency preparedness can be found at preparedbc.ca.
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