Hurricane Sandy Wireless Emergency Alerts: Why Only Some People Got Them

During the worst of Hurricane Sandy, just moments before the storm was about to make landfall, many in the affected states heard a noise over the wind and the rain. It came from their smartphone. For some, it was a loud buzzing with an emergency alert image, explaining that they should take shelter. For others, it was actually a female robotic voice, informing them of an emergency. Those notifications were what FEMA and the FCC call wireless emergency alerts or WEAs. They were designed to...Full Story