On Wednesday, October 3rd, 2018 at 1:18 PM CDT, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will send a TEST Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) message to nearly all wireless devices in the United States. This will be a TEST “Presidential Alert”. You can not turn off a Presidential Alert nor can you “opt out” of the test either. If your phone is turned on, within range of an active cell tower and whose wireless provider participates in WEA, the phone should be capable of receiving the message. This means just about every wireless phone near you during that timeframe will receive the text message at 1:18 PM CDT (10/3), which will likely set off an audible alarm for a short time.
None of the area Emergency Management Agencies have anything to do with the test and this doesn’t involve the National Weather Service. The test will not trigger NOAA Weather Radios.
For more information on the TEST “Presidential Alert”, please follow the link to the official FEMA information release about the test. https://www.fema.gov/emergency-alert-test