False tsunami warning in Alaska

Test message about threat accidentally broadcast on TV and radio

JUNEAU: Many Alaska residents were mistakenly warned on television and on the radio of a tsunami threat along the West Coast of the United States, from San Diego to Alaska’s Aleutian islands.

The alert said at the end of a nearly two-minute long message on Friday that it was a test, but not all listeners and viewers received that information, officials said.

The National Tsunami Warning Center said there was no threat. It said the message was a routine test sent at about 7am.

Susan Buchanan, a National Weather Service spokesman, said the centre’s test message was properly coded, but somehow re-transmitted in an abbreviated format.

That stripped the test coding and caused activation of the Emergency Alert System, which sends messages to TV and radio stations.

Nuchanan said it was not clear why it happened, adding that the agency was investigating and could not provide further details yet.

The tsunami warning centre is part of the National Weather Service.

The message was sent just months after a civil defence official in Hawaii mistakenly sent an alert indicating that a missile was inbound to the islands, prompting changes in how such alerts were issued. The employee who sent the false alert was fired.

In Washington state, officials said a false tsunami warning earlier this week in Clallam County was the result of a Jefferson County official testing a new cellphone app.

A real tsunami warning in Alaska earlier this year included alerts sent to cellphones, something that did not happen on Friday.

Rosemary Dunn, who lives in Anchorage, said she was more curious than panicked when the warning came through.

“I couldn’t find any earthquakes and was really perplexed,” she said.

She went online and then discovered that the alert was not real.

“They said it was misinterpreted. I’d really like to know what’s behind that, who misinterpreted that,” she added.

Jeremy Zidek, a spokesman for the Alaska Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, said there was a time limit for how long emergency alert system messages can last.

“This was a longer message and from reports officials have gathered, the information indicating it was a test was cut off for some listeners and viewers,” he said.

He added that other Alaskans heard the test information.

Often, the message says it is a test at the beginning. It was not clear why the version heard by Alaskans did not say it was a test until the end.

Zidek said the message on Friday was intended to be an internal test message.