Californians rattled awake by early-morning ShakeAlert messages
Californians across the state were rattled awake early Thursday morning when a planned test of the ShakeAlert earthquake warning system misfired seven hours ahead of time.
The messages — each reading “TEST of the earthquake warning system” — blared on many Californians’ phones at 3:19 a.m. Thursday, startling awake users of the MyShake app, according to numerous people who received the messages. The alert came ahead of the planned Great ShakeOut earthquake drill, which has been scheduled to take place at 10:19 a.m. Thursday. as a means to prepare the state for a large-scale earthquake.
State officials say the goal is to encourage people to practice earthquake safety, and remind residents to keep their emergency earthquake kits well-stocked. About 9.9 million people are expected to participate throughout the state, including school children and many office workers.
A tweet from the U.S. Geological Survey’s ShakeAlert program noted the errant messages and said they were seeking to address the issue.
“We acknowledge that no one wants to get a test message this early and we are working with our #ShakeAlert techical partner to determine what happened,” the tweet said.
This is a developing report. Check back for updates.