092 NOHW40 PHFO 232354 PNSHFO HIZ001>028-250000- Public Information Statement National Weather Service Honolulu HI 154 PM HST Tue Jan 23 2018 ...INFORMATION ON WIRELESS EMERGENCY ALERTS... The National Weather Service in Honolulu has received questions from people today wondering why their cell phones did not alert them for the Tsunami Watch which was issued last night. Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) are emergency messages sent by authorized government alerting authorities through your mobile carrier. Government partners include local and state public safety agencies, FEMA, the FCC, the Department of Homeland Security, and the National Weather Service. Alerts are sent automatically to WEA-capable phones during an emergency. As of January 2018, only the following most urgent National Weather Service warnings are sent nationwide as WEA messages: Tsunami Warnings Tornado Warnings Flash Flood Warnings Hurricane Warnings Typhoon Warnings Dust Storm Warnings Extreme Wind Warnings In order to minimize disruption to wireless device users, watches, advisories and other types of warnings are not disseminated via WEA and will not alert your phone. However, many of these warnings and watches are tone-alerted via NOAA Weather Radio. This is another option for users who wish to be immediately notified of hazards such as a Tsunami Watch. For more information on Wireless Emergency Alerts, see the following webpage: http://www.weather.gov/wrn/wea For more information on NOAA Weather Radio, see the following webpage: http://www.weather.gov/nwr $$ R Ballard/Bravender/M Ballard