Emergency Alert

Did you receive an emergency alert on your mobile phone today, between 6pm and 7pm? I did. It was a horrible loud beep, beep, beep, beep followed by an audio message, but my phone was in my pocket and I was driving on the highway at the time. I had forgotten about this test alert, and I couldn’t hear the message. However, one of my companions remembered what it was. Unfortunately, the noise was repeated again and again. I had to pull over at a suitable stopping place, get the phone out of my pocket and check the message on the screen. The message said it was a test alert, and no action was needed.

This test warning came from Civil Defence. Some countries use this system to warn people of a possible tsunami, forest fire, or some other emergency in that area. The message is sent out from cell phone towers in the area where there is an emergency.

If your phone did not receive this warning message, you can follow the advice on this link Civil Defence.

We all need to check with our neighbours to make sure they received the message if there is a real emergency. Not everyone has a smart phone.

Vocabulary

• alert – warning to take action
• to pull over – to move the car to the side of the road and stop (Note: to pull out means to move into the road from a position on the side where you have stopped)

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