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Date Published: 03/11/2022

Did you receive an ES-Alert message yesterday?

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Was the emergency alert system in the Murcia Region a success or a failure?

Did you receive an ES-Alert message yesterday?

Yesterday, Wednesday November 2, at 10.37am, hundreds of people were scared out of their wits in the Region of Murcia when their phones (and in some cases smart watches) beeped loudly and consistently, all at the same time.

This was a message sent by the government as part of the trial for its new ES-Alert system, which is set up with the objective of sending a text message to every person who has a phone in the case of an emergency such as a forest fire or an earthquake.

However, not everyone received the message, and those who did didn’t always receive the same message. Some people reported incidents of mobiles that showed only the visual message up on the screen, but without any noise or vibration. Others were surprised that they didn’t receive anything. Still others say they received the message twice.

In total, according to official estimates, around 7 out of 10 mobile phones displayed the alert correctly.

Murcia’s director general of Public Safety and Civil Protection, Fulgencio Perona, acknowledges that cases have been detected in which the system did not work as it should have. “Some did not play the acoustic warning and there was only a visual alert, in other cases it was the other way round, and it seems that some devices of a certain age did not receive it. These are the problems we have reported to Madrid, although, in general, we can describe the test as ‘successful’,” he says.

The test alert system is being spearheaded by the central government in Spain, and when it is up and running correctly will be used as the standard warning system for wildfires and flooding across the whole of Spain.

But not everyone is so keen on the idea. There are so many messages and emails we get sent on a daily basis that are scams, hoaxes, phishing attempts and publicity, so not everyone will believe it if they receive one of these messages.

At the same time, it is a way of alerting people who don’t regularly watch terrestrial television, listen to the radio or read the news in Spain, and who otherwise may not have known there was an emergency situation. The phone message is not meant to replace these other media, but merely complement it.

It’s also important, though, for the system to be agile, flexible and measured. If there is a ‘possible flooding’ alarm from the emergency services every time we get a little bit of rain, it can generate unnecessary alarm and people can get hysterical.

The Directorate General for Public Safety and Emergencies must now evaluate the data from the simulation carried out in the Region of Murcia. At the end of the tests, which are being carried out in stages in every autonomous community in Spain, there will be a meeting of the regional authorities to share their impressions. The last day of testing will be November 16. If the results are satisfactory, the next time your phone rings like this, it will be for a good reason.

Image: 112 Región de Murcia

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