Florida’s 4:45 AM Mishap 

On Thursday morning, at 4:45 AM, Florida residents across the state were woken up by a notification on their phones from the Emergency Alert System. The message read “TEST – this is a TEST of the Emergency Alert System. No action is required.” Later, the Florida Department of Emergency Management (FDEM) publicly apologized for their alert, stating that,“ This particular alert was supposed to be on TV, and not disturb anyone already sleeping.” It was later announced that a contracting company, Everbridge, sent the wrong coding instructions which ultimately led to the alert being pushed out to Floridan cell phones. Because of this mishap, the FDEM decided to end their seven year contract with Everbridge. Needless to say, the Floridan government is making sure that they don’t have another accident like this happen again.

By Pavithra Sankar