Screen shot of alert from this morning at 4:19
/ Travis Ruiz - FOX21 News
COLORADO SPRINGS, COLO. -- People throughout the area were awakened early Friday morning by a loud alert on their phones.
The alert stated that there was a Blizzard Warning for the area starting at 8 p.m. Saturday.
According to the El Paso-Teller E911 Authority, the alert was not sent out by the Reverse 911 but instead by a system called CMAS or Commercial Mobile Alert System.
CMAS, a partnership between FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) and the FCC (Federal Communications Commission), sends out emergency notifications to a geographically-defined area.
Not all cell phones have this service, officials said.
"When a CMAS message is received your mobile phone will alert you with a unique ringtone and a vibration followed by a message up to 90 characters long," El Paso-Teller E911 Authority said on Facebook. "Due to the 90 character limit, alerts will contain only basic information."
Those with a capable phone can select the specific levels they want to receive or if they want to receive them at all.
For more information on the alert system, click here.
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