JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — What was that? Many Floridians were jolted awake by a test emergency alert at the tender hour of 4:45 a.m.
The message, accompanied by a blaring tone, told residents it was only a test.
“This is a TEST of the Emergency Alert System. No action is required.”
A test of many sleepy people's patience, perhaps.
The Emergency Alert System or EAS is a national warning system commonly used by authorities to notify residents of urgent information, like severe weather or missing child alerts, according to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
The EAS sends a test alert to Floridians' devices once a month at either 4:50 a.m. or 1:50 p.m., according to a schedule posted on the Florida Association of Broadcasters' website. First Coast News has reached out for more information about the test schedule.
The Florida Division of Emergency Management posted an apology, explaining that the test alert was a mistake and was only meant for TV,
"We are taking the appropriate action to ensure this will never happen again and that only true emergencies are sent as alerts in the middle of the night," FDEM wrote in a follow up tweet.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis also posted his thoughts on Twitter, calling for "swift accountability".
People were not happy and quickly took to social media to express themselves.
The hashtag #emergencyalert began to trend on Twitter as a flurry of reactions and memes were posted.
#emergencyalert:
The alert sparked fury in many Twitter users on Thursday morning.
It also left some concerned that the test would push many to turn off notifications completely, rendering the alert system moot.
But a bunch of frustrated Floridians can make for some pretty funny content.
First Coast News reactions:
Like most people who received the alert, we were also a little confused.
Some of us seemed in favor of the test alert (Looking at you, Lewis).
Or at least found the bright side to the situation.
Some of us were a little more angry.