President Trump’s Text is Coming to Your Phone in October
One day in October, we're going to hear everyone's phone go off with an alert at the same time and no one can opt out. The test had been planned for tomorrow (September 20), but it was postponed because of Hurricane Florence.
The text message from President Trump will be a test this time, but it's designed to give the President a way to reach everyone in case there is a "natural disaster, act of terrorism, or other man-made disaster or threat to public safety."
The Federal Emergency Management Agency and Federal Communications Commission planned to test the feature tomorrow, but now that's being postponed until Wednesday, October 3.
We're going to hear the alert going off simultaneously at places like Brookshires, your dentist's office, the Lufkin Mall, all over the SFA campus and anywhere there is a person with a phone. There will be no ignoring it.
With Amber Alerts and Thunderstorm Warnings we can disable the alerts and opt out, but with the Presidential Alert, there is no option to bypass it. There are over one hundred wireless carriers across the country that have agreed to send the alerts to customers, and there are some worries about how that's going to play out in schools, movie theaters, and meetings at the office if everyone's phone is going off at the same time. The Huffington Post said Twitter started using the hashtag #GoDark920, to encourage us to power down cell phones to avoid getting the alert.
The test that had been scheduled for tomorrow was supposed to happen at 1:18 pm and the rescheduled test may be the same. Just know there might be an interruption at your 1 pm meeting on October 3rd. And if our mics are live at the radio station at that time you're gonna hear our phones going off too. That might be weird.
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