The Milwaukee County Office of Emergency Management will be testing the first county-wide wireless emergency alert system in Wisconsin during the annual statewide tornado drill April 11.
At 1:45 p.m. that day, anyone who is in Milwaukee County with a mobile device that can handle a wireless emergency alert will hear a special tone and vibration, repeated twice, and receive the following text message: ” This is a TEST of the Milwaukee County Wireless Emergency Alert System. No action needed. ”
“Alerts received at the right time can help keep you safe during an emergency, and with WEA, OEM can send warnings to people who may be in harm’s way,” said Chris Abele, Milwaukee County Executive. “Similar to AMBER alerts, WEA messages are text messages sent through mobile carriers in a designated geographic area, without a special app or subscription.”
The alert system will work the same as the system currently used by Wisconsin Emergency Management to send out AMBER Alerts.
A change by the FCC will allow counties to have their own wireless emergency alerts starting in May. Milwaukee County requested and received a waiver to begin testing their system in April.
OEM Director Christine Westrich says this system will be used only in the event of imminent threats to Milwaukee County, such as severe weather and terrorist attacks.
“We want the community to know that if they get a WEA message, it’s serious and requires immediate action,” said Westrich . “We will not issue WEA messages for traffic backups.”
In case severe weather does take place on April 11, the alert and tornado drill will be moved to April 12 at the same time.