On Monday at 12:27 pm EST Verizon sent out an emergency alert text message to some customers in New Jersey indicating a civil emergency and advising customers to take cover. It turns out this text message was a mistake but definitely a scary mistake for a good number of Verizon customers.
The text message went out to Verizon Wireless customers in Monmouth, Ocean and Middlesex counties. The message read, "Civil Emergency in this area until 1:24 PM EST Take Shelter Now U.S. Govern."
People freaked out on Twitter and Facebook about the message. I personally grew up in Monmouth County so half of my Facebook feed was exploding with terrified status updates about the text. A large group of people called their local police station, news station, or even just dialed 911 to find out what was going on.
Soon after the message went out, police issued another message stating that the original emergency alert was a mistake by Verizon. So exactly how does a company like Verizon make such a terrifying mistake? A Verizon spokesperson stated that the message was a test message which wasn't supposed to go out but it wasn't correctly marked as a test message so out it went.
The message itself was part of CMAS (Commercial Mobile Alert System) which involves mobile carriers as well as the FCC and FEMA. Hopefully this system won't result in any more accidental and terrifying messages going out to the general public.
Do any of you folks live in those counties in New Jersey? How did people around you react to the message?
