According to the National Weather Service, there are four types of mobile alerts you might receive:<\/p>\n
- \n
- Extreme weather warnings<\/li>\n
- Local emergencies requiring evacuation or immediate action<\/li>\n
- AMBER alerts<\/li>\n
- Presidential alerts<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
If only cell phones had been around in Dorothy’s time \u2026<\/p>\n
![\"gift_gab-advanced_warning1\"](\"http:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/gift_gab-advanced_warning1.jpg\")
Illustration by W. W. Denslow from L. Frank Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz<\/em> via Wikimedia Commons<\/p><\/div>\n
A WEA will look like a text message, showing the type and time of the alert, any action you should take, and the agency issuing the alert.<\/p>\n
How do you sign up for these alerts?<\/p>\n
You may not need to.<\/p>\n
The WEA messaging system is activated by default on most new smartphones or iPhones (iOS 6). In June, AT&T added WEA messages for iPhone users.<\/p>\n
Don’t worry\u2014you’re not charged for WEA alerts, and they don’t count against your messaging plan. But,<\/p>\n
if you want to check the WEA status on your iPhone, you can access the menu by going to Settings > Notifications > and scrolling to Government Alerts at the bottom. You can also disable the alerts if you don’t want to receive them.<\/p>\n
No alerts found on your phone?<\/p>\n
Check with your carrier to see if your phone is capable of receiving WEA messages, and make sure you have the latest operating system.<\/p>\n
For more information about WEA capable phones, visit FCC.gov.<\/a><\/p>\n
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Have you ever been startled by an unbidden alarm from your cell phone? Well, here’s a little “FYI” that was news to me \u2026 Wireless Emergency Alerts, or WEA, are emergency messages sent by government agencies through mobile carriers to … Continue reading