Washington took a big step Thursday toward a long-discussed earthquake early warning system by sending test alerts to mobile phones, but many people didn’t receive the messages.
“This is why we test, so we have an idea of what we need to work on, what improvements we need to make,” said Maximilian Dixon, who heads geologic hazards for the state emergency management division.
The ShakeAlert test via wireless emergency alert (WEA) was only available in King, Pierce and Thurston counties, and required people to opt-in. Next week, state officials will get survey results from people who clicked on a link within the alert. For a few minutes around the time of the 11 a.m. test, the website crashed.
The results will report who got the test message, what kind of phone they used, their carrier, and how quickly the message arrived.