UK Emergency Alert Tests

[RuralRambler]

It would be good if this system could be activated quickly enough at incidents such as Grenfell Tower. Had it been available then, it would have been a life saver. But, even if the tech is available, you need the officers in charge of the emergency services to agree and activate it quickly enough. Not much use if junior officers don't feel confident to do it (or don't know how to) and instead wait an hour or two for senior officers to attend, by which time it may be too late.

 

[edwin_m]

It would be good if this system could be activated quickly enough at incidents such as Grenfell Tower. Had it been available then, it would have been a life saver. But, even if the tech is available, you need the officers in charge of the emergency services to agree and activate it quickly enough. Not much use if junior officers don't feel confident to do it and instead wait an hour or two for senior officers to attend, by which time it may be too late.

I think the problem for most people at Grenfell was not being unable to contact emergency services, more succeeding in contacting them but being told to stay put. So if such a system had been activated it would probably have carried the same dangerous message.

 

[westv]

Hopefully this would never happen here.

'All personnel take shelter immediately'

A false missile alert was broadcast in Hawaii urging people to take shelter.

www.bbc.co.uk

Hawaii missile alert: False alarm warning broadcast​

Hawaii missile alert: False alarm warning broadcastClose

An incoming missile alert plunged residents of Hawaii into panic on Saturday morning before it was declared to be false.
An alert system is in place because of the potential proximity of Hawaii to North Korean missiles.
In December, the state tested its nuclear warning siren for the first time since the end of the Cold War.

 

[Baxenden Bank]

Particularly when you’re trying to sleep during the day for a night shift, only to get woken up just for the sake of a “test”. Hopefully flight mode might be enough to stop it, if silent isn’t. Or will I have to go all old fashioned and buy an actual alarm clock, so I can turn my phone fully off!

Don't buy an 'internet of everything' alarm clock, it will probably have a built in function to take the alert from your smart phone, via your toaster and kettle, to still go off in the middle of your sleep. Then, when you throw the clock through the window, it will report back that you didn't respond appropriately.

Alternatively, your phone operating system will be programmed to turn the phone on and to alert you regardless of your preferences of it being turned off.

Perhaps invest in a lead lined box (for the phone, not a coffin).

 

[Trackman]

Slightly OT, I had a power outage text from an electricity distributor.
I have never given them my phone number or anything.
Was this a mass text from a cell site (near home) or do my electricity supplier give them my number?

Hopefully this would never happen here.

'All personnel take shelter immediately'

A false missile alert was broadcast in Hawaii urging people to take shelter.

www.bbc.co.uk

Some people didn't bother and carry on, like Jim Carey. I think that would be me, take me out in the blast.
A lot of kids of have more important things to worry about, like me in the cold war era- you knew it could happen at any time but it was a way of life.

 

[GusB]

Slightly OT, I had a power outage text from an electricity distributor.
I have never given them my phone number or anything.
Was this a mass text from a cell site (near home) or do my electricity supplier give them my number?

Electricity suppliers can share information with the network operator, but they should obtain your consent to do this. It has been a while since I worked in the industry but, if I recall correctly, consent was something we usually asked for when adding a customer to the priority services register.

 

[RuralRambler]

I think the problem for most people at Grenfell was not being unable to contact emergency services, more succeeding in contacting them but being told to stay put. So if such a system had been activated it would probably have carried the same dangerous message.

The trouble was that the message DID change to get out, but they didn't have the manpower nor phone numbers to call people back to to them. It was only the ones who made repeat 999 calls from the tower who got the new message to get out. (Luckily some did).

 

[edwin_m]

The trouble was that the message DID change to get out, but they didn't have the manpower nor phone numbers to call people back to to them. It was only the ones who made repeat 999 calls from the tower who got the new message to get out. (Luckily some did).

So if they'd had this system they could potentially have put out an alert with the new message.

 

[biko]

Here in the Netherlands we do have such a system fully operational next to the old-fashioned sirens. Twice a year everyone gets a test message and those don’t override the setting that my phone should be silent. I can just see it show the notification. It works on both iOS and Android.

The system here isn’t abused as some people fear would happen. I never received a real one and the only cases I heard of were huge fires and other big events for which you should take immediate action.

 

[GusB]

I was under the impression that there was the facility to send a broadcast SMS message built into the mobile infrastructure already, or did I imagine this?

How did these alerts present themselves on Android phones? Were they "normal" text messages, or did they appear just as notifications?

 

[Baxenden Bank]

I was under the impression that there was the facility to send a broadcast SMS message built into the mobile infrastructure already, or did I imagine this?

How did these alerts present themselves on Android phones? Were they "normal" text messages, or did they appear just as notifications?

The governement sent a text to 'everyone' at the beginning of the COVID pandemic, but they had to go through providers rather than having a direct means of contacting people.

 

[Darandio]

Slightly OT, I had a power outage text from an electricity distributor.
I have never given them my phone number or anything.
Was this a mass text from a cell site (near home) or do my electricity supplier give them my number?

I got a text from Northern Powergrid once during a power cut to tell me there was a power cut. Had never dealt with them or gave them my number.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

The government sent a text to 'everyone' at the beginning of the COVID pandemic, but they had to go through providers rather than having a direct means of contacting people.

Well, I never received that one either...

 

[Baxenden Bank]

I got a text from Northern Powergrid once during a power cut to tell me there was a power cut. Had never dealt with them or gave them my number.

Very useful I'm sure, once you'd recovered from stumbling over the coffee table in the dark.

Well, I never received that one either...

I have mine to hand:
GOV.UK.ALERT CORONAVIRUS
New rules in force: you must stay at home.
More info & exemptions at gov.uk/coronavirus
Stay at home. Protect the NHS. Save lives.

Sender:
UK_Gov

As to the technicalities of how it was sent - well beyond my knowledge.

 

[Sad Sprinter]

Nah they've done things like this from time to time before. I had a text message back in maybe 2010/11ish which boiled down to being a test of an emergency alert system. I feel like I may have had another a few years later as well. Didn't get this one!

It seems sensible to me for the government to have some method of alerting the population to impending disaster. We've not really had one since we decommissioned the siren based system at the end of the Cold War (apart from a few edge uses like flood alarms in the Calder Valley, escaped psychopaths from Broadmoor or at a chemical works). Which has always marked the UK out as something of an outlier really as many countries have national alert systems of one sort or another. Using mobile phones seems a sensible method as any to me. I'd be far more likely to hear my phone going off at 1am than a siren when I'm asleep and there's a double-glazed window and some miles between me and it!

One of the first threads I started on here was about Cold War era air raid sirens - https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/cold-war-memories.150366/

 

[Baxenden Bank]

As mentioned a month ago, today I had an alert from Severn Trent. Apparently, in my area, there has been an increase in water use due to the hot weather and would people try not to use so much. I do wonder if this genuinely applies just to my local area or whether it is a generic messsage sent to every customer. In which case it is simply spam.

Strangely, they are not so keen to message me about the fact that, after their meter reading error, and their unilateral decision to increase my monthly direct debit by a factor of three, that I am now fully paid up until December 2022.

Any national alert system in this coutry will be misused. Having invested in a system 'they' just won't be able to stop themselves using it to prove its worth the expense.

 

[DarloRich]

I got a text from Northern Powergrid once during a power cut to tell me there was a power cut. Had never dealt with them or gave them my number.

As mentioned a month ago, today I had an alert from Severn Trent. Apparently, in my area, there has been an increase in water use due to the hot weather and would people try not to use so much. I do wonder if this genuinely applies just to my local area or whether it is a generic messsage sent to every customer. In which case it is simply spam.

Strangely, they are not so keen to message me about the fact that, after their meter reading error, and their unilateral decision to increase my monthly direct debit by a factor of three, that I am now fully paid up until December 2022.

Any national alert system in this coutry will be misused. Having invested in a system 'they' just won't be able to stop themselves using it to prove its worth the expense.

That isn't the national alert system. I am not even sure the system is live yet!

Most of the 2nd quote has nothing to do with this thread and is just a moan.

The governement sent a text to 'everyone' at the beginning of the COVID pandemic, but they had to go through providers rather than having a direct means of contacting people.

no they didn't. None of my 3 mobiles on 3 different networks received such a text.

 

[Baxenden Bank]

no they didn't. None of my 3 mobiles on 3 different networks received such a text.

I can only go on what the government and press said at the time. Hence 'everyone' being inverted.

 

[DarloRich]

I can only go on what the government and press said at the time. Hence 'everyone' being inverted.

no worries - they missed me out sadly. Hopefully they wont if there is an imminent threat to life!

 

[Baxenden Bank]

no worries - they missed me out sadly. Hopefully they wont if there is an imminent threat to life!

If there is an imminent threat to life, I'm not sure a warning is much use. For example the cold war 'four minute warning' - just enough to make a half-decent cup of tea then stand on your doorstep and watch oblivion. Depends how 'imminent' imminent is.

I can see the benefit in a Whaley Bridge type situation (the reservoir that nearly burst) where there is time for people to take action but perhaps not time to go round door-to-door or with loud-speaker vans. Identify the flood risk area (already known), identify all the cell masts in that area (already known), cross reference the two automatically using GIS, send a message to every phone within signal range (regardless of network). The message would need to be very well written though, not like the Coronavirus text (refer to a website) or the National Rail disruptions (services are disrupted, expect delays or cancellations).

I'm not against the idea of such a system for national alerts, just against it being misused once it is in place for things which aren't national (where a national alert is sent) or aren't imminent / emergencies, such as a rush today at your local A & E (as previously raised) or a 'save water', 'save electricity' or 'eat more healthily' generic message.

 

[DarloRich]

I'm not against the idea of such a system for national alerts, just against it being misused once it is in place for things which aren't national (where a national alert is sent) or aren't imminent / emergencies, such as a rush today at your local A & E (as previously raised) or a 'save water', 'save electricity' or 'eat more healthily' generic message.

I think you are confusing two things. The national alert system is not designed for that kind of notification. That sounds like some kind of local area broadcast perhaps based on selected mobile phone towers.

 

[MattA7]

At least we don’t have emergency warning sirens like some countries do. I remember being abroad and they tested it and being glad the announcement before hand was in both English and the local language otherwise it really would have been scary.

 

[WelshBluebird]

At least we don’t have emergency warning sirens like some countries do.

In some areas we do, but for specific local things. E.g. The Severnside Sirens near Bristol because of the heavy industry around Avonmouth.

 

[Meerkat]

At least we don’t have emergency warning sirens like some countries do. I remember being abroad and they tested it and being glad the announcement before hand was in both English and the local language otherwise it really would have been scary.

Where I grew up there was an air raid siren for when people escaped from the local asylum (or smoked under the fire alarm depending who you believed).
Broadmoor still has one and tests it regularly I think.
Various places have flood warning sirens don’t they? Sounds like the Germans could have done with those.

 

[Geezertronic]

Where I grew up there was an air raid siren for when people escaped from the local asylum (or smoked under the fire alarm depending who you believed).
Broadmoor still has one and tests it regularly I think.

When I grew up, there used to be an air-raid siren on the top of our tallest school building which used to get a regular test. Was quite a racket especially when we had a lesson on the 3rd (top) floor It hasn't gone off for a long while now so I presume that it has been removed/decommissioned

 

[Darandio]

At least we don’t have emergency warning sirens like some countries do. I remember being abroad and they tested it and being glad the announcement before hand was in both English and the local language otherwise it really would have been scary.

Depends where you live. We have them less than 2km from our house.

 

[MattA7]

Depends where you live. We have them less than 2km from our house.

do you live in the UK? A lot of other countries have emergency alert sirens but in the UK as others have said it’s usually only for a specific purpose such as broadmor hospital (a maximum security psychiatric hospital)

 

[Scotrail314209]

I've got sirens near me at ICI Ardeer, that get tested at least once a month and can be heard over the entirety of Saltcoats, Stevenston and Kilwinning.

Carstairs Hospital I believe also has sirens.

 

[Ostrich]

Various places have flood warning sirens don’t they?

Portland, Dorset is one - the low-lying causeway between the Isle of Portland and Weymouth, (Chiswell area), had a high-tech digital flood warning siren system installed in 2011 which replaced old WW2 sirens.

I think I read somewhere that there is a flood warning siren in my home town, which has suffered from flash-flooding in the past, but I can't actually find confirmation of it or remember it being tested. The Town Council have been recommending residents to sign up to the national phone/email/text flood-alert service, however .....

 

[Cowley]

Thread reopened for @Baxenden Bank to provide an update.