In the middle of the night Friday – well, really the wee hours of the morning of Saturday, Nov. 22 – a flaw in Guilford County’s emergency warning system scared the bejesus out of just about every resident in the county.
One of those residents was the owner and editor of the Rhino Times who, due to the timing and the sudden blaring alert sound coming from every Apple device, assumed there must be something like a nuclear missile attack taking place.
At about 2:28 a.m., cell phones across Guilford County lit up, vibrated and blared the harsh Wireless Emergency Alert tone usually reserved for tornado warnings, AMBER Alerts or truly imminent threats.
However, this one wasn’t meant for everyone: The alert was supposed to be targeted only to a small area near a law enforcement incident on Creekwood Drive in Greensboro.
Instead, it was sent out to every wireless subscriber in Guilford County.
According to a Saturday afternoon press release from the county, the problem occurred within the third-party system Guilford County uses to send Wireless Emergency Alerts. FEMA requires local governments to use an approved vendor for Wireless Emergency warnings distribution, and Guilford County relies on one of those outside providers.
“Due to an error within that system,” the release stated, “the alert was sent to all wireless subscribers within Guilford County instead of a geographically targeted group, as was intended.”
The county and all agencies involved apologized for the jarring wake-up call, noting that sending out these alerts is a responsibility treated with “utmost respect and seriousness.”
The county said it’s investigating the issue with the vendor and is taking steps to prevent a repeat of the early-morning mishap.
Wireless Emergency Alerts – usually referred to as WEAs – are a nationwide tool meant to get urgent, life-saving information to cell phones during emergencies. They’re used for severe weather warnings, fast-moving public safety threats and AMBER Alerts.
When they work as intended, the alerts are targeted at small geographic areas based on cell tower location – so only people in immediate danger receive them.
Saturday morning’s alert was one of those rare times when the system did the exact opposite.
After the 2:30 jolting wake-up call, residents flooded social media complaining about being jolted awake.
County officials are emphasizing that disabling alerts isn’t a good idea. WEAs are designed to reach people in the moments when seconds matter most, and county Emergency Services staff is urging residents to keep all WEA notifications turned on.
“Disabling these notifications may result in the missing of vital information which could have dangerous repercussions,” the county cautioned.
Now emergency officials are waiting to get answers from the vendor and are working to ensure that Guilford County’s sleepers doesn’t experience another countywide wake-up call the next time a localized incident requires a targeted alert.
