City of Colorado Springs, CO

09/19/2024 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 09/19/2024 17:35

Emergency alert testing to occur during upcoming evacuation exercise

Local public safety officials will issue two test emergency alerts during an upcoming evacuation exercise in the Broadmoor Bluffs area of Colorado Springs.

On Saturday, Sept. 28, at 11 a.m., both Peak Alerts and the Wireless Emergency Alert system will activate with the following messages:

Wireless Emergency Alert - TEST ALERT

Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEAs) are short emergency messages. They come from authorized public alerting authorities at the federal, state, local, tribal, and territorial levels. WEAs can be broadcast from cell towers to any WEA-enabled mobile device within a specific local area.

Depending on the age/carrier of your mobile device, you may receive one of the following messages:

  • WEA 90 Character Alert: TEST ALERT: This is a test of the wireless emergency alert system. No action required.
  • WEA 360 Character Alert: Colorado Springs Police Department: TEST ALERT. First Responders are conducting an EXERCISE in the area of Highway 115 and Star Ranch Rd. Watch for emergency vehicles. This alert is testing public alerting capabilities. NO ACTION REQUIRED.

Peak Alerts - TEST ALERT

TEST, TEST, TEST. This is a test of Peak Alerts for the Broadmoor Bluffs Evacuation Exercise. This is only a TEST.

If you are participating in this exercise, you should proceed to Harrison High School located at 2755 Janitell Rd for the Safety Fair.

You can disregard this alert if you are not participating in the exercise.

This concludes the test of Peak Alerts. End Test

Peak Alerts notifications will display the caller ID (719) 309-4135. Text messages will be from 88911. Emails will be from [email protected]. Store this info on your mobile device. It will alert you to important emergency messages from Peak Alerts.

Residents can sign up for Peak Alerts at peakalerts.org. Peak Alerts warn you of life-threatening emergencies. Examples of emergency situations include evacuations, natural disasters, and missing persons. They are also used for hazardous materials incidents and public-impacting law enforcement activity.

Peak Alerts notifies residents of nearby emergencies at their registered address(es) or current location (if using the Everbridge app). People can register their home address, child's school, work location and more. To sign up for these alerts, residents must create an account. It must include their address and at least one contact method. Peak Alerts protects your information will not use it for any other purpose. Residents can choose how they want to receive these messages, via text, phone call, email, mobile app, fax, and more.

Peak Alerts notify users regardless of the location of their physical phone. This means registered users receive alerts whether they're at home, at work, or away from their registered locations. WEAs, however, are sent only to phones in a defined area.