How the U.S.’s National Emergency Alert System Works | WSJ

Today FEMA is testing its ability to send emergency alerts to cellphones, TVs and radio on a nationwide scale. The test is a chance to make sure the federal government can alert the entire country in the event of a nationwide emergency. Since 2012, local authorities have sent over 86,000 messages through the wireless alert system to mobile devices.

WSJ looks at why this alert happened and gives a background on the tech behind emergency alerts.

0:00 National emergency alert system
0:47 Background on emergency alerts
1:30 How the alert works
2:42 What’s next?

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