The National Emergency Management Agency has revealed why some people received multiple emergency alerts – while other received no alerts at all – during the tsunami event caused by the 8.8 earthquake off Russia last month.
Two emergency mobile alerts were issued during the Kamchatka tsunami event of July 30-31 to warn people of dangerous tsunami activity in coastal areas.
NEMA’s Director Civil Defence Emergency Management John Price said the agency has now identified why some people received multiple alerts, or no alerts at all.
“NEMA only issued two alerts – at 4.13pm on July 30 and 6.30am on July 31 — but some people received multiple alerts during the night. We’ve discovered this is likely related to overnight software updates and device settings.
He said these issues are largely down to “how different mobile devices behave, and the decision to send the alerts only to cell phones in coastal locations”.
“As for those who didn’t receive alerts – tsunami alerts are only sent to coastal areas, so if you were inland then we didn’t send you the message because you were not at risk.
A glitch meant people received multiple Civil Defence alerts about the possible dangers from the Russian quake. (Source: 1News)
‘We are very sorry’
Price said NEMA sent alerts to more than three million mobile devices around the country.
“When you consider the sheer variety of makes, models, and software, it’s inevitable some variations will emerge at the receiver end,” he said.
“We know explanations are little consolation for those who were awoken by alerts in the middle of the night. We are very sorry that this happened, and we’re looking at ways to address this in future. However, we make no apologies for getting the message out to keep people safe.
“The good news is that there is no problem with the systems we use to send the messages. The alerts were effective in reaching the targeted coastal areas and getting the message out to stay away of the water while dangerous tsunami activity was happening.
He said the agency would debrief to identify “what went well and what needs to improve”.
“We’re working through this now to ensure we’re doing the best we can at keeping people safe from tsunami and other threats.”
Why did I get multiple alerts?
NEMA said there were a few possible explanations for why people may have received multiple alerts.
- When your phone does an automatic software update overnight it reboots. If you turn your phone off and on again during an alert broadcast, you will get the alert again. So when your phone reboots after an update, you will get the alert a second time.
- During the early morning hours, some devices refresh their network connections. This process may have cleared cached data, prompting your phone to give you the alert again. While your device should recognise that it has already received and displayed the alert, it appears that some devices are more conservative and elect to redisplay.
- If you have multiple active Sims / eSims, you will get an alert for each Sim.
- If your phone moved between 3G and 4G networks during the alert broadcast, you will get the alert again each time your phone connects to the new network. This can happen if you’re travelling into a poor coverage area, or if your phone drops in and out of networks.
- Some phones have an optional alert reminder feature turned on. This can cause your phone to alarm repeatedly during the alert broadcast. If your phone does have this feature, you should be able to find it in your phone settings and turn it off.
“As we don’t have any control over how individual devices behave, we can’t completely stop these issues from happening again – but we are looking at ways we can reduce their impact,” NEMA said.
Why didn’t I get an alert?
For those living inland or in a suburb not at risk, NEMA said these people were not targeted.
“Emergency mobile alerts are sent to zones that are geotargeted based on where the risk from the hazard is,” it said.
People in coastal areas who did not receive an alert should check troubleshooting advice on their phones.
In an emergency, NEMA also urged people to use all available safety tools to stay informed – rather than simply rely on alerts.
Why did I get the alert at a different time?
Following the alerts at 4.13pm and 6.30am, NEMA said it “continued to transmit these alert broadcasts for several hours” to warn people arriving late to coastal areas.
It said if commuters entered the broadcast zone later in the day, your phone triggered the alert then. People may also have received it late if their phone was off or in flight mode when the alert was first sent.
Why did everyone in my house get the alert except me?
People who may not have received the alert when others in their household did were likely on the edge of the geotargeted broadcast zone, NEMA said.
“If some people in your household get the alert and others don’t, you’re probably right on the border and those who didn’t get the alert may have a different network provider or are connected to a different cell tower than those who did.”
They said it was likely due to network differences — but being on the border means you were still safe.
