If you were rudely awakened at 4:45 a.m. Eastern Thursday morning, you're not alone. An Emergency Alert test was sent to many people's phones, jolting many awake.
"TEST - This is a TEST of the Emergency Alert System. No action is required," the alert said. The good news — the test worked. The bad news...
The loud alarm associated with these types of emergency alerts caused many to wake up much earlier than planned. And, according to FDEM, it was sent by mistake.
In a statement Thursday afternoon, a spokesperson with the Florida Division of Emergency Management says the state's contract with software company Everbridge was severed after the mistake.
"Florida contracts with a company called Everbridge to provide the technical coding and instructions required to push out emergency alerts," FDEM Communications Director Alecia Collins said in a statement. "Everbridge sent the wrong technical specifications for this alert – which ultimately pushed the alert over the Wireless Emergency Alert system (cellphones)."
"Good government identifies errors, corrects them expediently, and holds people accountable when appropriate."
"We are taking the appropriate action to ensure this will never happen again and that only true emergencies are sent as alerts in the middle of the night," a tweet from FDEM said.
In a statement, the software company called the incident an "unfortunate procedural error."
“We have a long history of supporting the State of Florida and the Florida Division of Emergency Management (FDEM) dating back to 2016. Our system is used by cities, states, and entire countries around the world," Everbridge Vice President of Corporate Communication Jeff Young said in a statement. "We provide powerful technology that is used for good, and to save lives. There appears to have been an unfortunate procedural error in this monthly test that we are investigating. As mentioned by FDEM, we too regret the inconvenience this test caused the residents of Florida earlier this morning.
"We are committed to the State of Florida and to FDEM as a partner, as we are with all of our customers, to continue to improve and ensure best practices are applied.”
The alert prompted many to immediately hop on Twitter to air their grievances and see who else was woken up. Many of the tweets and responses are hilarious, as you would expect.
"Me receiving that emergency alert at 4:45 #emergencyalert," one popular tweet said.
"Ah so I see we’re all collectively here after that TOTALLY UNNECESSARY emergency alert test 🚨 But why at 4 AM though?!?!?" another tweet said.
Many people, including some of us here at 10 Tampa Bay, are reporting their "test alert" settings for emergency alerts were turned off, and yet they still received the alert on their phones, adding to the confusion.
Gov. Ron DeSantis posted a tweet calling the mistake "a completely inappropriate use of this system" and vowing to bring accountability to whoever was responsible.
FDEM issued a statement explaining that a company called Everbridge "sent the wrong technical specifications" for the alert, mistakenly sending it to people's phones.
You can read the full statement below:
Emergency alert testing directives originate from the federal government. This morning’s test was supposed to be a test of televised emergency alerts, which the Florida Association of Broadcasters normally schedules for very early in the morning because that is when the fewest people are watching TV (to minimize disruption). Florida contracts with a company called Everbridge to provide the technical coding and instructions required to push out emergency alerts. Everbridge sent the wrong technical specifications for this alert – which ultimately pushed the alert over the Wireless Emergency Alert system (cellphones).
Good government identifies errors, corrects them expediently, and holds people accountable when appropriate. The Division recognizes that this error was unacceptably disruptive and will correct it.
Nonetheless, the Division stresses the importance of being able to receive emergency alerts as disasters can happen at any time and these alerts save lives. Please do maintain emergency alert notifications on your cellular device – we will ensure they are used appropriately henceforth.