Emergency Alert System sends test warning

An emergency tsunami warning alert that went out over the air was just a test.

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“It was definitely a test,” Joel Curtis, the warning coordination meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Juneau, said. “The message that we got here at the forecast office was pretty clear about it being a test. And the format of the message was in its usual test form.”

According to the National Tsunami Warning Center in Alaska, a routine communications test message went out at 7 a.m. Friday, but it “has been misinterpreted.”

“We’re thoroughly investigating as to how the test message got out and was interpreted as a warning on radio and TV,” Curtis said.

Curtis says the investigation into how the alert happened will likely take a few days.

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