False Tsunami Warning Hits East Coast Before Hearing on Hawaii Incident; Schatz Filing Bill
Some residents along the East Coast received a false tsunami warning Tuesday morning, in the hours leading up to a hearing by the House Homeland Security Communications Subcommittee on last month’s false missile alert in Hawaii (see 1801160054). Effective and reliable alerts are vital to the public and wireless emergency alerts need to be improved, said Chairman Dan Donovan, R-N.Y. False alerts undermine confidence in them, he said.
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The National Weather Service in New York tweeted: “THERE IS NO TSUNAMI WARNING. … We are currently trying to find out how a message went out as a warning.”
The National Tsunami Warning Center, part of NWS, issued a routine test message at about 8:30 a.m. EST, the NWS said. The message “was released by at least one private sector company as an official Tsunami Warning, resulting in reports of tsunami warnings received via phones and other media across the East Coast, Gulf of Mexico, and the Caribbean,” the NWS said. The simulation wasn't disseminated via any communications channels operated by the NWS and an investigation is underway, the service said. The FCC didn’t comment.
Senate Communications Subcommittee ranking member Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, told us he planned to file legislation after our deadline Tuesday aimed at addressing issues posed by the Hawaii incident. Schatz has been working on the bill with Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., and others. Schatz previously said the measure would be aimed at developing best practices for state and local governments to use to improve their emergency alert processes (see 1801170050).
“The numerous disasters and terrorist attacks that we’ve witnessed over the past few months have illustrated that timely communication is critical in an emergency situation,” Donovan said. Alerts “can help individuals protect themselves from harm’s way.” The public has “high expectations,” he said. “At the very least, we expect that the alerts that come through our devices are timely, accurate and only sent when necessary.” The false tsunami message, “which followed the chaos seen in Hawaii just last month, shows that immediate changes to our nation’s alert systems are needed," Donovan said after the hearing. “We can’t let these mistakes happen again, and I will be using testimony from my hearing to address these issues.”
“Our ability to issue timely emergency alerts and warnings is an essential component of the national preparedness,” said ranking member Donald Payne, D-N.J. Recent false alarms show state and local government officials need more training on alerts and better guidance from the federal government, he said. “False alerting can be very dangerous as it can lead to alert apathy, confusion and unnecessary panic.”
The panel heard from the Federal Emergency Management Agency on the incident after FEMA declined to send a witness to an earlier hearing by the Senate Commerce Committee (see 1801250061). Antwane Johnson, FEMA director-continuity communications, said the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System disseminated almost 3 million messages since 2012. FEMA manages IPAWS, but it relies on states and local agencies to originate warnings.
FEMA is analyzing what went wrong Jan. 13 in Hawaii, Johnson said. FEMA is working with software vendors that provide apps to state and local agencies “to improve those tools,” he said. FEMA met with the vendor that provides the software to the state and other governments. The vendor “will be rolling out this week improvements to [its] … software to prevent these types of errors occurring in the future,” he said. FEMA is also “revisiting” its training procedures with a focus on the Hawaii incident, he said.
Johnson warned fixing problems won’t be easy. One solution, requiring two-person validation before a message is sent, works in cities where emergency operation centers have lots of staff, he said. “It doesn’t work as well in rural areas where the chief of police and a single office may be responsible for sending that message to the public.”
FCC Actions Possible
The FCC is still investigating the Hawaii alert and may have more recommendations when that's concluded, said Lisa Fowlkes, chief of the Public Safety Bureau. The initial FCC investigation (see 1801160054) cited failure by state officials. The officer who sent the warning declined to speak with FCC investigators, she said. Fowlkes noted that rules extending the character limit for alerts from 90 to 360 and requiring sending of Spanish-language alerts will take effect in May 2019.
“We want to take advantage of this opportunity never to let a crisis go unused,” said Peter Gaynor, director of the Rhode Island Emergency Management Agency.
Donovan said the FCC was right last month to require more accurate geo-targeting of wireless emergency alerts (see 1801300027). “This will help to deter warning fatigue,” he said. Donovan urged the FCC to act on multimedia alerts and alerts in multiple languages. He said enhancements are “meaningless” if the public doesn't see the alerts as accurate.
Carriers serving 99 percent of U.S. subscribers take part in the voluntary WEA program and have transmitted more than 33,000 emergency alerts, said Scott Bergmann, CTIA senior vice president-federal regulatory. “The recent false alarm in Hawaii underscores the importance of our collective efforts to ensure the functionality and the integrity of our nation’s emergency alerts systems.” Carriers have no control of the messages that are sent, he said.