This is a test of the Emergency Broadcast System -- It's not a test this time
 

Connecticut Evacuation
Connecticut Evacuation: False Alarm
February 2, 2005
By MARK PAZNIOKAS, Courant Staff Writer

With a few errant keystrokes Tuesday, a state official generated the familiar tones of the emergency broadcast system and what may be the most startling message to ever crawl across the bottom of television screens in Connecticut:

"Civil authorities have issued an immediate evacuation order for all of Connecticut, beginning at 2:10 p.m. and ending at 3:10 p.m."

The terse message sent viewers running for their telephones - police reported calls from the curious and the panicked - but it failed to set off a noticeable exodus into Massachusetts, Rhode Island or New York.

The sweeping scope and limited duration of the order led some residents to suspect that something was amiss.

"I figured what could be that grand that would make everybody in the state of Connecticut have to evacuate?" said Gordy Iler of West Simsbury, who nonetheless reassured himself with a call to police.

"I thought it was totally bizarre," said Corinne Greenshields of Mansfield, who returned home to find the message sliding across her TV. "If it was an evacuation, why would it be for an hour?"

Still, to be safe, she took two precautions: One, she called her resident state trooper, who was unaware of any impending disaster; and two, she looked out her window for evidence of an emergency.

She saw none.

The only real emergency was at the state Office of Emergency Management in Hartford. The director, Kerry Flaherty, immediately suspected that a hacker had issued the erroneous evacuation order.

But a red-faced subordinate quickly confessed to punching in the wrong code during the weekly test of the emergency broadcasting system. Officials sent out a fax to every police department in the state, informing them of a false alarm.

Flaherty said numeric codes for contingencies ranging from avalanches to volcanoes are read off a monitor and manually entered on a keypad.

As it happens, the code for evacuation is one line above the numbers for the weekly test. The officer simply read the wrong line, Flaherty said.

Flaherty declined to name the duty officer, who, he said, faces no disciplinary action.

"It was a mistake," he said.

Gov. M. Jodi Rell ordered an investigation into the incident. Without any investigation, Flaherty said the evacuation code will be purged from the system.

The Emergency Alert System is composed of radio and television broadcasters. The system is voluntary, but its design and list of coded messages follow standards set by the federal government, said Wayne Mulligan, a WDRC-AM station manager.

"The crawl is generated automatically," Mulligan said.

By late Tuesday afternoon, the incident prompted mild joking in state agencies other than the Office Emergency Management.

Sgt. J. Paul Vance, the state police spokesman, told some reporters who tracked him down by telephone, "I'm in New York, where the heck are you?"

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Ok, Nutmeggers, did y'all catch the warning, and did you heed the warning? I'm thinking no, because if that happened 95 would still be backed up. One question that really does come to mind, if you are told to evacuate the state, where do you go? Rhode Island?

I saw this on the news this morning, and they didn't quite say how many people followed the warning, but they did say that the local police got no phone calls on the warnings.

So, we've seen the Emergency Broadcast Warnings for years, do they do any good at all?

Hehe that's funny... last one out of Connecticut turn off the lights!

I can only imagine sitting home watching TV and then being told by EBS to get the hell out of the state with no reason why.

-Mikey

I'm in Connecticut, but I didn't hear about it until several hours after it happened. If I'd heard the warning, I'd probably have spent a couple of minutes getting a verification from a second station, then I'd go North to Massachusetts. I'd stay the hell off of I-95, anything would be better than that.

I like how they're just removing that code completely. What happens if aliens invade or there's a nuclear bomb in connecticut and they really do need to evacuate the entire state? Sure it may not happen, but in this crazy day and age who's to say?

I found what that one lady did to be somewhat funny too. Called some state trooper then looks out her window. No mushroom clouds, i guess we're safe!

The problem with the Emergency Broadcast System, is that decades of listening to that annoying tone while they perform weekly tests has trained us all to ignore it. I think the average member of the public is more likely to change the channel or turn off the TV or radio than they are to pay attention to the announcement. Obviously some residents of Conneticut paid attention and called for verification, but I wonder what percentage of people watching that channel they represented.

Nothing against Connecticut but I think I would be looking for verification myself as I don't believe they are high on the list for an alien landing or terrorist attack. Instead of deleting the evacuate code, they should just create a new one:

Sorry we told you to get the fuck out of the state. We made a mistake. Have a good day! :) :crazy: :)

They use them here anytime tornados have been spotted so I always listen....but I guess ya'll dont really have a tornado problem up there :lol:

i'll usually watch the alert long enough to see if its just a test or if its something worse.....

ive seen em for tornados and very high flash flood warnings....

If there was a nuke dropped in connecticut I don't think the TV would work somehow.

Anyone wanna tell me where the Emergency broadcast sytem was on Sept. 11th? We heard that damn thing all the time but not once have I seen it acually used when needed.

Hmm, kinda funny how they immediately blame a "hacker." I remember that was one of the first things that was blamed for the blackout on the east coast. I guess I don't know for sure, buy it seems that something like an Emergency Broadcast System would be pretty secure. But you know those wily hackers, they can turn your computer into a bomb, or render your toaster useless. ;)

I am sure there were other people who suspected terrorists. I dunno, just seems like they immediately want to point the finger at someone else.

I used to listen to them when I lived in NC because of tornadoes and flash flood warnings, but now that I'm back in Utah, I pretty much ignore them when I hear the tone.

This reminds of a story involving the post office and an errant message that ended up getting put on post marked letters for a period of time. I can't recall the specifics of the message but it was something juvenile, inappropriate and funny enough to make me chuckle.

This story seems a bit more severe though given that it was asking the good people of Connecticut to BUG OUT :eek: Seems like common sense prevailed for the most part but LOOOCEY -- you got some 'splainen tuh duuuu!!!

We have these tests all the time in Texas, i never listen to them though.

Same here, Every first Tuesday of the month at 12:00 they test it.

Back to thread subject. Didn’t Candid Camera do a stunt one time where they took over a toll booth in New Jersey and told people that the state was close?

The funny part. most of the people didn't question it. they just turned around and left.

My favorite part of the "evacuation" was it's timeframe -- exactly 2:10 to 3:10 PM. At 3:10, apparently, everything is sunshine again!

Its the Whalers. They're back and they're pissed off this time.

Great story! I'll bet it was that damn sasquatch...

I'm in Michigan. We used to live in Detroit and the surrounding areas and for my entire life, the first Saturday of every month was when the tornado sirens went off (emergency sirens but we always called them tornado). We moved to the west coast of the state 11 yrs. ago and were in the same place until 1 1/2 yrs. ago. Just like back by Detroit, the sirens went off every first Saturday.

We moved to our new town (only 15 min. away) and it drives me crazy because there must be some nutjob in charge of the emergency sirens. Forget every first Saturday, the sirens go off on any day of the week, sometimes multiple times a month, and never for an emergency. I constantly scratch my head and think WTF? I'm too lazy to actually call city hall and ask someone what the deal is but it drives me batty. It's like the boy who cried wolf, how are we supposed to take the sirens seriously if they are always going off for no reason?! By the way, the "Test of the Emergency Broadcast System" is on a consistant weekly basis here, and yes, I tune it out. Kinda hard to do with loud as, WWII bomb shelter sirens that blare for 4 or 5 minutes straight.

Ali

In the town in which I grew up -- by the way, also in Michigan -- the sirens were used to call out the volunteer firemen. I think this is pretty common practice.

That's the way it is here. We live 3 blocks from one of two firestations in town here. It's sirens go off probably once a week.

Our alerts on radio and television seem like twice a month to me - might be wrong. But we get them for severe thunderstorms and tornados around here too so I usually wait a sec to see if it's a test or real. Usually though you have some forwarning if it's real so you're actually watching for it. I wonder if people would have just jumped on the freeway without checking had there been any other things going wrong or sirens going off.

Im not sure how serious I would take one of those emergency warnings, we get so many of them during storms and the such that unless they made them look dramatically different I would probably just turn my head. I would probably take CNN more serious than one of those warnings.

Hell, it's too expensive to live in Connecticut anyway.
We can get by with 49 states.... :lol:

actually, they have one of the two drydocks on that coast capable of building nuclear-powered submarines. Electric boat Co. I believe has theirs, pretty much the only one other than the Newport News yard in Virginia that can manufacture 688-class fast attack subs and I can't remember which one produced Ohio class ballistic missile subs. If we were to be in a full-scale war or anticipate being in one with any country thinking to launch a naval campaign, those shipyards are pretty vital for replacing/repairing damaged ships. Additionally, for saboteurs or terrrorists, there are ongoing construction programs in that shipyard that contain classified and highly developed technologies that take a lot of taxpayer money to maintain and manufacture. Causing kinks in that production chain would also be a lucrative target for individuals desiring strife.

Also located in Connecticut is the US Navy's nuclear submarine training center for officers and enlisted men. One of the major striking arms of our navy that is currently an unopposed ability to project force at will, and the officers, enlisted crewman and instructors at that school are also a viable target for terrorist activities.

just because things aren't exactly publicized as major installations of American military or civilian infrastructure doesn't mean they aren't there.

What use would that have served in Illinois other than possibly cause panic? There was barely a TV or radio station in the country covering anything else that day. But as others have mentioned, it has worked well in many areas in the event of natural disasters.

We have a nuclear sub facility in Groton.

Also, during the cold war, GE had a plant in Bridgeport that assembled nuke parts. I live five miles from a building that was a nuclear target.

I'm on the other end of the state, but there is a target here.