iPhone emergency alerts - grrrr

[ashmarie06]

My galaxy did this the other day. Except it was an amber alert. At 4:30am. And it wouldn't quit blasting until I woke up and manually turned it off. Before I fell asleep i did look around my room for a good Chrysler.

I am not undermining the importance of these alerts. Especially an amber alert. But I would have taken it more serious if it would not have woke me up.

I can especially see how it would be great for a tornado in the.middle of the night.

I suppose there are pros and.cons to everything!

 

[Malibustyle23]

I am in MD and have verizon as well. I don't even have a Presidential Alerts. My only options to turn on/off are AMBE Alerts and Emergency Alerts. Maybe the Presidential one isn't listed since it can't be turned off anyway?

Probably, it isn't individually listed on mine it just gives the notice that they are mandatory. Kinda makes me nervous that they plan on having to give us presidential alerts.

 

[hlg22]

If the National Weather Service has issued the warning then yes. Just because its just raining hard by you and you dont have flooding doesnt mean that someone else is not experiencing flooding.

I live in the DC metro area. Some roads flood when it rains really hard. Generally the same ones, always have, probably always will. If I'm out driving and see that the road is flooded and I can't tell whether I can safely drive across, common sense tells me to turn around. Sorry, but I don't put that in the same category as an imminent tornado and the like, warranting a siren in the middle of the night. It's not the true "flash flood" as in the Southwest where it's totally dry one minute and a river the next. I have not gotten any alerts for NWS thunderstorm warnings, etc., which I would put in the same category.

 

[Shutterbug]

I live in the DC metro area. Some roads flood when it rains really hard. Generally the same ones, always have, probably always will. If I'm out driving and see that the road is flooded and I can't tell whether I can safely drive across, common sense tells me to turn around. Sorry, but I don't put that in the same category as an imminent tornado and the like, warranting a siren in the middle of the night. It's not the true "flash flood" as in the Southwest where it's totally dry one minute and a river the next. I have not gotten any alerts for NWS thunderstorm warnings, etc., which I would put in the same category.

The storms that hit here caused flash flooding in parts of some towns that had NEVER ever seen it before. The storm dumped 2" of rain just one hour. Peoples basesments were flooded. This hit during rush hour and many people were stranded in cars because it came down so hard so fast. This wasnt the southwest, it was NE Ohio.

 

[hlg22]

The storms that hit here caused flash flooding in parts of some towns that had NEVER ever seen it before. The storm dumped 2" of rain just one hour. Peoples basesments were flooded. This hit during rush hour and many people were stranded in cars because it came down so hard so fast. This wasnt the southwest, it was NE Ohio.

Then it sounds like perhaps YOUR area warranted a true flash flood warning. HERE, this didn't. In my opinion, if you're going to wake people up in the middle of the night, it needs to be for a life-threatening occurence, otherwise people are just going to disable these stupid alerts, as I just did.

 

[scrapquitler]

So apparently about a month ago AT&T and Verizon added emergency alerts to their iPhones...has anyone else discovered this? I was not aware of it until about 2 weeks ago, when I was at work and a sound like an airhorn blasting at top volume let me know that there was a flash flood warning. I think half of my office had a collective heart attack. It was then followed up by FOUR MORE alerts of flash flood warnings. Yes, we were having a thunderstorm and it was raining hard, but this seemed a wee bit excessive...water may pool up on some roads, but I'm not in an area where true "flash floods" sweep cars off through canyons, etc.

Anyway, I forgot about it until last night -I usually leave my phone on in do not disturb mode and plugged in/charging while I sleep, since it's my primary phone. Last night I woke in a panic to an alarm sounding at 12:30 a.m. - I originally thought the house was on fire, as it took a few minutes for my sleep-fogged brain to realize that it was not the smoke detector, but just another emergency alert of a flash flood warning as a thunderstorm was coming through. I turned my phone off after that but couldn't get back to sleep for over an hour.

I get that this would be a useful system for an imminent tornado or damaging t-storm or the like, but really, middle of the night alerts that it's raining really hard?

It's probably not the cellphone provider that the alerts are from...it's one of your news or weather apps. Go to Settings, then notifications and see what apps you ahve set to send you notifications, and turn them off.

 

[hlg22]

It's probably not the cellphone provider that the alerts are from...it's one of your news or weather apps. Go to Settings, then notifications and see what apps you ahve set to send you notifications, and turn them off.

:sigh: Nope, see posts and links above - as repeatedly stated, it actually is the cellphone provider, not any apps (don't have news or weather apps, in any event).

 

[sam_gordon]

Then it sounds like perhaps YOUR area warranted a true flash flood warning. HERE, this didn't. In my opinion, if you're going to wake people up in the middle of the night, it needs to be for a life-threatening occurence, otherwise people are just going to disable these stupid alerts, as I just did.

Again, the NWS puts out the watches & warnings, generally covering AT LEAST a county, if not more. They don't say there's a 'Flash Flood Watch for Asbury St'. It's a 'Flash Flood Warning for Madison County'. If you happen to be in Madison County, you're going to receive that warning.

AND, even a WARNING doesn't mean the event will happen.

 

[Christine]

I got my first alert last night at 2AM and a second one around 2:30AM. My phone just vibrated. My DD's phone did it also and all I heard was this stupid airhorn. Yeah, I got a lot of sleep last night--all for a flash flood possibility. I've gone into my notifications and turned them off.

 

[hlg22]

Again, the NWS puts out the watches & warnings, generally covering AT LEAST a county, if not more. They don't say there's a 'Flash Flood Watch for Asbury St'. It's a 'Flash Flood Warning for Madison County'. If you happen to be in Madison County, you're going to receive that warning.

AND, even a WARNING doesn't mean the event will happen.

Yes, obviously I realize that NWS isn't issuing weather alerts tied to my specific house. Again, the alerts on the phone aren't going off with every NWS watch or warning. We've had several severe thunderstorm warnings that have not come through the emergency alert on the phone. As I've said, multiple times now, it's my opinion that pushing loud sirens through people's phones in the middle of the night should be reserved for life-threatening events - tornadoes, very severe t-storms like the derecho we had a few years ago, etc. I would welcome being awakened in that instance. On the other hand, in the 10+ years I've lived here, I can't recall anyone ever dying in a flash flooding incident (unless perhaps they tried to swim the Potomac, in which case I don't think the phone alert would have helped). Occasionally you get someone stupid who decides to drive through an obviously flooded street and has to be rescued from their car, but that's about it.

 

[jgh]

I'm ok with the feature but I don't understand why you can't change the alert tone! A simple *ding* would be enough. But oh, no...let's just scare the poop out of everyone!

I got one of these alerts in late June around 2 in the morning (I was dead asleep). It was an Amber Alert for NORTH CAROLINA. I'm in Georgia. Don't get me wrong, I think it's important for these alerts to get out...but I had heard this particular case became an Amber Alert way before midnight. I don't see why they waited until 2 in the morning to send the alert out. Or why they sent it to people who were no where near North Carolina.

I am so jumpy with loud noises (my fiance says I'm like a deer...or a spooky horse ). I even get shaky around public toilets that flush really loud. This alert woke me up and I couldn't stop crying or shaking for a good twenty minutes. Didn't go back to sleep that night. I really thought the world was ending. Or zombie apocolypse. Not cool. I turned every alert that I could off. You can't turn presidential alerts off...but at least I won't get local ones (or not so local ones aparently).

I have Nixle text alerts from my local Police Dept for that (tell me about robberies, road closings, weather, missing persons, Amber Alerts...). Just a simple text tone! Not an "omg-the-world-is-ending" alarm.

I wish they would have warned people about this alarm system or something.

 

[SandrA9810]

There are many weather programs that can send alerts based on your house location. Then you're not being woken up in the middle of the night by events in the county that may never affect you.

I'm glad my phone is not affect by this, and I doubt my bf's will ever go off because nothing happens in California. People talk for a week if they heard a little rumble of thunder or saw lightning in the distance.

 

[SandrA9810]

I wish they would have warned people about this alarm system or something.

They just rely on this DIS to pass the word along. Its much easier.

 

[wvjules]

There are many weather programs that can send alerts based on your house location. Then you're not being woken up in the middle of the night by events in the county that may never affect you.

I'm glad my phone is not affect by this, and I doubt my bf's will ever go off because nothing happens in California. People talk for a week if they heard a little rumble of thunder or saw lightning in the distance.

Really? Wildfires? Earthquakes? Coastal flooding? What California do you live in?

 

[goofyintoronto]

Same thing happened to my phone on Monday! Its the first time i ever heard it. It was a warning about the flooding we had here in toronto. I got a 2nd one later that day. Caught me off guard. BTW, i have an Android, not iphone. But these emergency alerts are fairly new to me i guess because of the weather app i downloaded. Lol. Comes in handy!

So apparently about a month ago AT&T and Verizon added emergency alerts to their iPhones...has anyone else discovered this? I was not aware of it until about 2 weeks ago, when I was at work and a sound like an airhorn blasting at top volume let me know that there was a flash flood warning. I think half of my office had a collective heart attack. It was then followed up by FOUR MORE alerts of flash flood warnings. Yes, we were having a thunderstorm and it was raining hard, but this seemed a wee bit excessive...water may pool up on some roads, but I'm not in an area where true "flash floods" sweep cars off through canyons, etc.

Anyway, I forgot about it until last night -I usually leave my phone on in do not disturb mode and plugged in/charging while I sleep, since it's my primary phone. Last night I woke in a panic to an alarm sounding at 12:30 a.m. - I originally thought the house was on fire, as it took a few minutes for my sleep-fogged brain to realize that it was not the smoke detector, but just another emergency alert of a flash flood warning as a thunderstorm was coming through. I turned my phone off after that but couldn't get back to sleep for over an hour.

I get that this would be a useful system for an imminent tornado or damaging t-storm or the like, but really, middle of the night alerts that it's raining really hard?

 

[SandrA9810]

Really? Wildfires? Earthquakes? Coastal flooding? What California do you live in?

Central valley, just below Stockton. They barely felt the Sacramento earthquake back in the 90's. And I've never felt one living there. No where near the coast. Haven't hear of any wildfires in the region, but most of the land is agriculture or developed. Yosemite park does their own schedule of fires to keep the underbrush clear but thats 2hr away. They did have higher temps this summer than Dallas so far, and I'm glad I'm at my aunt's where the AC is always set to 78 and her car has a cold AC.

Coming from Florida, I find the occasional downpour of rain rather boring. When I got back to Texas, it was just before the Moore tornadoes, and had some pretty wild weather here, but it felt more like home.

 

[Albort]

Presidential Alerts are mandatory. Unmark alerts you do not want to receive.

The option to turn off Presidential Alerts is there, but its hidden. I guess in the future, it could be an option to turn it off. So far no alerts from the president so i didnt bother to get that enabled.

This alert system is fairly new to AT&T. I believe verizon and sprint has this in place long before as many of my verizon friends were getting amber alerts. A window should have pop up alerting you that the carrier settings has been updated.

I wouldnt mind shutting presidential alerts off though, i mean, one day hackers will get into it and wake the entire nation up at 3am... :\

 

[jgh]

I wouldnt mind shutting presidential alerts off though, i mean, one day hackers will get into it and wake the entire nation up at 3am... :\

Yea, that sounds perfect. There's going to be another War of the Worlds broadcast freak out (pending what they would send out, anyway).

 

[Fire14]

my Dh has gotten alerts for awhile but he has weather apps and local TV station app on his phone. I have gotten a few amber alerts and a flash flood alert ( wed July 10th). I don't recall any loud noises with mine but I saw/knew of amber alert thanks to a walgreens sign 3+ hrs before it came across my phone. The flash flood alert I was definitely in area of Floods but didn't have phone on me at time.

 

[vicki_c]

So apparently about a month ago AT&T and Verizon added emergency alerts to their iPhones...has anyone else discovered this? I was not aware of it until about 2 weeks ago, when I was at work and a sound like an airhorn blasting at top volume let me know that there was a flash flood warning. I think half of my office had a collective heart attack. It was then followed up by FOUR MORE alerts of flash flood warnings. Yes, we were having a thunderstorm and it was raining hard, but this seemed a wee bit excessive...water may pool up on some roads, but I'm not in an area where true "flash floods" sweep cars off through canyons, etc.

Anyway, I forgot about it until last night -I usually leave my phone on in do not disturb mode and plugged in/charging while I sleep, since it's my primary phone. Last night I woke in a panic to an alarm sounding at 12:30 a.m. - I originally thought the house was on fire, as it took a few minutes for my sleep-fogged brain to realize that it was not the smoke detector, but just another emergency alert of a flash flood warning as a thunderstorm was coming through. I turned my phone off after that but couldn't get back to sleep for over an hour.

I get that this would be a useful system for an imminent tornado or damaging t-storm or the like, but really, middle of the night alerts that it's raining really hard?

The same thing happened to us last night and this morning (while sleeping). We have a weather app that does this but only in severe situations and the noise last night was much different and a lot louder. I looked at the phone and the symbol was different too and I couldn't figure it out. I thought it was from the weather app. NOW I understand, thanks to you!

I am also in MD but have AT&T. And I did get a carrier update alert notice recently.

The app we have doesn't alert unless its right in your specific area, not if it's a regional type thing. So last night, under the notification that was the government one, I did have a few flash flood alerts from our app. But they don't alarm audibly unless it's localized. Then, it actually alarms and speaks to you and says "there is a flash flood / tornado / whatever warning". Much more reasonable.