This bloody emergency alert

[Random789]

It's going to be like when they test the fire alarm at work, isn't it?
You get more and more tense waiting for it, then three minutes before it is due to go off you forget all about it. Then it does go off and you scream like a lunatic and jump so hard that you dislocate something in your neck.

I'd rather just get fried in a nuclear attack and avoid all the stress.

And it's not about Sunday at 3pm, it's about random alerts that could happen anytime.

It's going to terrify me

No, you can't.

Ah right. In Plymouth they had (have) one for the nuclear subs.

Storm warning, fire, escaped prisoner, another Hungerford?

Okay, sure

I live in the US and have gotten these test alerts on a monthly basis for years. I have the option of turning off the amber alerts for my county, but the tornado alerts , flood alerts etc are life saving for many people.

In that case, fair enough.

It’s probably be going to be the highlight of my day. I’m looking forward to it.

I have news and weather notifications flash up on my phone why do I need a alarm as well? There should be an option for text only or at least to be able to turn the alarm off during the night!

Because emergencies don't conveniently limit themselves to daytime? If, say, there's an out of control fire approaching your house at night time, being sent a text isn't going to be massively helpful.

You'd hear people talking outside, someone would be awake or how would anyone alert the authorities to send the alert?

I can’t imagine why anyone would want to turn it off

If there's an out of control fire approaching your home the rozzers bang on your door until you're outside.

When the silly cow opposite called the fire brigade in the middle of the night because a fuse had tripped I can assure you it woke me up!

The point is though, fires aside, there’s very little I’m going to be bothered about in the night. If we’re about to be nuked I don’t want to know, if the house floods I’ll know when my feet get wet, if someone goes missing there’s nothing I can do about it in the early hours.

I am not the only person who has commented on this, so why single me out? Also, I have been on this earth for over 60 years and had NEVER heard of people who can't seem to cope with the simplest little thing before discovering MN. I realise some people have issues, but honestly, the amount of silly little things which people can't deal with (and yet they seem to be able to work, find a partner and have children, all of which I would have thought more stressful) is beyond belief. The lack of resilience is astounding. Many parts of the world have alarms sent to phones, and I have never heard anyone complain, MN is a whole other level.

Those who mentioned nuclear warnings, is it still Cold War estimates of around four minutes?

@Aslanplustwo

am not the only person who has commented on this, so why single me out?

I didn't. I have responded to several people on this thread.

If you are terrified of the alert for whatever reason you can turn off all emergency alerts on your phone. Problem solved.

So there is no need to be terrified about this. It's not compulsory.

So each evening turn your emergency alert setting to off. And if you want turn it back on in the morning.

If you want a personal preference on when or when not to hear the alerts it's up to you to take control and do a bit of work in your phone settings. But that option is there.

Yes you might forget to turn in back on or off but that's your problem no one else's.

Take some responsibility and action. Again this problem can not be a problem. You only make it a problem yourself.

@aberlot turn off the emergency alert notifications on your phone problem solved for you.

You need never worry about it again.

However, we don't want to see you on MN after a disaster of some sort, moaning that you didn't have any advance warning!

However, we don't want to see you on MN after a disaster of some sort, moaning that you didn't have any advance warning!

Oooh, I love the idea of a post-apocalypse Mumsnet. There could be all sorts of threads about bunker etiquette and the best moisturiser for radioactive skin decay.

However, we don't want to see you on MN after a disaster of some sort, moaning that you didn't have any advance warning

This. A question for all the people who are worried about this. Do you think that there shouldn't be any kind of emergency planning provision, in case the testing and exercises causes people to worry about what could happen?

As someone who works in the industry, I know that without proper testing, you can find that your plan that might look good on paper, doesn't work very well during exercises/in real emergencies, and the things that cause problems are often surprising and not what you'd expect at all.

Ditto!!

Plus I want to know what it will sound like in case it does go off for real. (And lets be frank- if anything the past 3 years has told us is that anything can happen).