[sbe-eas] UI is hard: Why did Floridians wake up to an early-morning emergency alert?

[Sean Donelan]

Alert Origination Software user interface still suck.  Alert Originators 
still get confused how to send alerts and surprised by who gets those 
alerts.  It will be blamed as "operator error", but is actually a software 
design flaw because humans will be humans.


https://www.wfla.com/news/florida/why-did-floridians-wake-up-to-an-early-morning-emergency-alert/

TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) – Good morning, Florida! Early Thursday morning, 
Florida residents were awoken by a loud alert on their phones.

Across the state, Floridians’ phones sounded off around 4:45 a.m. The loud 
sound, which is usually associated with an Amber Alert or sever weather, 
woke millions.

When residents looked at their phones, the screen read: “TEST – This is a 
TEST of the Emergency Alert System. No action is required.”

While the alert showed that it was simply a test, residents are still 
wondering why the alert went off so early.

According to the Florida Association of Broadcasters, the test alert is 
scheduled to occur every other month around 4:50 a.m. However, Florida 
officials stated that residents were not supposed to get the alert on 
their cell phones.

On Thursday morning, The Florida Division of Emergency Management 
announced that the alert broadcast to phones statewide was an error. The 
Emergency Test Alert was intended to be broadcast on TV, not on the phones 
of sleeping citizens.

The Florida Division of Emergency Management said they’re “taking 
appropriate action to ensure this will never happen again and that only 
true emergencies are sent as alerts in the middle of the night.”

No longer want to receive these alerts? Here are step-by-step instructions 
on how to disable the feature. However, it should be noted that some 
residents who had Test Alert notifications turned off still received the 
alert.

iPhone users:

Tap the Settings app to open it, then tap Notifications. Users need to 
scroll to the bottom of the screen and find the section that says 
“Government Alerts.” From there, move the sliders to off/white. Once off, 
users will no longer receive Amber, Emergency, Public Safety, or Test 
Alerts.

Android users:

On an Android device, open Settings, then tap Notifications. Find 
“Wireless emergency alerts” and select the alerts you want to receive.