Assessing Public Reach of the 2023 National Test of the Wireless Emergency Alerts (Wea) System

The United States uses a complex set of emergency alert tools run by federal, state, and local agencies, as well as private companies, to alert the public to urgent situations. At the federal level, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)'s Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS) was developed by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS). IPAWS includes the Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) system, a national public warning system that targets and localizes alerts to mobile devices. The WEA system shares current and critical information between emergency managers and their communities via message to mobile devices that include national alerts, imminent threat alerts, public safety alerts, and AMBER (America's Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response) Alerts. WEA uses cellular broadcast technology to send messages via cell towers, which send messages specifically to cell phones within the immediate impact area. IPAWS engaged the Homeland Security Operational Analysis Center to assess how well the U.S. public received the 2023 nationwide test of the WEA system. The authors summarize how well the U.S. public received the test alert based on a nationally representative survey of the public directly following the test alert. This work should be of interest to the FEMA IPAWS Office; the Federal Communications Commission (FCC); the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency, and specifically the National Weather Service; the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children; all other organizations that develop emergency alerts and communications; and disaster science researchers.