Florida residents angered after 4:45am emergency alarm wakes them up

The text Florida residents received as the alarm went off Credit: @ShevrinJones

Florida residents got an unwelcome wake-up call when an alarm meant to test an emergency alert system was mistakenly sent to residents’ mobile phones at 4:45 am.

The Florida Division of Emergency Management has apologised for the early morning siren, admitting that a "4:45 wake-up call isn't ideal". It added that the alert was meant to come across on televisions, not cell phones.

The emergency alert system is intended to notify people of incoming disasters, such as hurricanes.

“The division understands that unexpected 4:45 AM wake-up calls are frustrating and would like to apologise for the early morning text,” the agency said.

“Each month, we test emergency alerts on a variety of platforms, including radio, television, and text alerts. This particular alert was supposed to be on TV, and not disturb anyone already sleeping.”

Millions in the UK will receive a similar alert on Sunday as the UK tests its new emergency system - though in this instance alarms are set to sound at 3pm.

The UK goverment released a picture of what their upcoming emergency alert will look like to mobile phone users. Credit: HM Government

In Florida, residents were none too pleased about the pre-dawn alert, with many sharing their bleary-eyed dismay on social media.

"This was an excellent way to get people to turn off alerts on their phones so congratulations for your success on that," on Twitter user posted.

"I remind myself that at least it wasn’t that erroneous there’s-a-nuclear-missile-heading-your-way that Hawaii got a few years ago," another wrote, referring to a incident in 2018 were Hawaiians were mistakenly told a "ballistic missile threat" was "inbound".

Just this month, fear was sparked in Japan's northern island of Hokkaido when the government's emergency alert system warned residents to take cover from a North Korean missile. It later emerged the alarms had been sent in error and the missile had fallen outside Japanese territory.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, a Republican, said on Thursday that he was directing the head of the agency to bring “swift accountability” for the test alarm.

“This was a completely inappropriate use of this system,” Mr DeSantis tweeted. “Stay tuned.”

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