Emergency Broadcast Alerts

[KimRaye]

2am here and, WLS Channel 7 in Chicago just did one. Scared the you-know-what outta me! I have NEVER heard one of these at this hour and, I hope I never do again! My heart's still racing.

Aren't these usually about 10-11am?

 

[jenjie]

I'll tell ya what, I will definitely be freaked out if they actually follow that sound with some real emergency info.

I once saw a skit where they played out the emergency broadcast test. At the end, they said... "if this had been an actual emergency, the sound you just hear would have been followed by....."

and all the people on stage run around screaming.

I thought it was pretty funny... at the time. Now, probably not so funny.

 

[helenabear]

You know Kim, I am not normally up at that hour but the times I am, I don't think I've seen them do it before. I will say it doesn't matter what time of day they are on, they usually scare the heck out of me! Sorry it made your heart race so though.

 

[seashoreCM]

Once I was just walking on the sidewalk downtown and heard a radio in a store playing the emergency broadcast alert. Then a minute later and in front of another store I heard their radio play the emergency broadcast alert. No particular emergency but I always seem to hear these alerts during the middle of the day.

Disney hints:
http://members.aol.com/ajaynejr/disney.htm

 

[December99]

They use to do them at that time of day all the time. I'd get them in the middle of watching something really stupid while I was babysitting. But you would think at this time with what is going on in the world...they would reconsider when it actually happens. I know the State of Illinois is doing these are various times of days and times during the day. That's what we've been told by our on campus meteorologist.

 

[PRINCESS VIJA]

Last summer, just as I was about to go to bed around 11:00 pm, that sound did come on, and THERE WAS AN EMERGENCY This does work!!!!! They reported that there was a tornado and stated where it was in the county and where it was headed. Not 5 sec later the tornado sirens went off. So actually the emergency system on the TV warned me first. And by the way the tornado was headed straight for our town. It went to the south part of town, with no injuries. But I tell you I was terrified, but very gratefull for the system.

 

[dixiegirl]

We have had several in our area over the past couple of years and thankfully they were all weather related.

 

[MosMom]

Around here, they are playing those alerts for the Amber Alert as well. I was up late one night and at about 3am that went off and it wigged me out. Turns out, it was the Amber Alert system being tested.

 

[CourtasanSatine]

It's the same way here for Amber Alerts and it happened over the weekend

 

[Mish19]

My mom told me she heard the alert followed by the announcement of Desert Storm starting! I wonder why it didn't play with the war with Iraq.
I also wondered why there was no emergency alarm on 9/11? I know there was plenty of news coverage but it seemed like you would hear that alert on that day.

 

[Pin Wizard]

Where we are, it's always at 1 a.m. It usually wakes me up off the sofa.

 

[CourtasanSatine]

outside of Amber Alerts it's usually 2 or 3 times a summer for weather