European Reacts to Emergency Alert Systems (EAS) are Scary 

If you had ever been through killer tornados or other serious weather events you definitely wouldn't find the alerts unnecessary or crazy. They save lives.

Today, they are also connected to your cell phone.

Tornado alerts are actually kind of reassuring. I know somebody is watching the weather develop, while I go on with my life, and will let me know if it's headed for my neighborhood. They tend to err on the side of caution.

And you just wait for those magic words... 'this is just a test of the emergency broadcasting system'

When you fall asleep with the TV on and the EAS hits......you'll shit the bed! Literally.

The USA tornado alley states and people were BEGGING for early warning systems for decades!!! Because the time it takes for bad weather to turn into killing weather is minimal. If you can get out of bed and into a shelter you WANT to be alarmed into action.

If you didn't catch it, another main use for EAS alerts are for "Amber Alerts." A girl named Amber was kidnapped & made not alive in 1996. A law was passed so if there is a missing, presumed kidnapped child, an alert will come up with the name & description of the girl and who they were last seen with, maybe a license plate number and type of car. There are also "Silver Alerts" for elderly people who have "wandered off," or drove to get errands and got confused.

12:45 you do also have to realize....we have more severe weather than only tornados - and we have entire sections of the country where we don't *have* tornado sirens. For instance - the northeast coast hardly *ever* gets any tornados but we do get hurricanes, flooding, and snowstorms. There are no flood warning "sirens" - just alerts.

When you live in the Midwest, it’s just a normal day when you hear that sound.

Today our phones go crazy. Of course the tornado sirens are necessary. And we hear them all the time in the summer.

Yes, there are tornado chasers. Some are independent, and some are with news stations. There are videos on RU-vid with tornado chasers actually chasing tornados. They are helpful because they can update/warn emergency services and news stations. Having eyes on a developing tornado can give precious seconds to communities of the actual location, size, strength, and speed of it. Video recording the tornado helps scientists to predict and understand tornadoes.

We had an emergency broadcast test happen while I was in charge at McDonalds. No one knew the test was going to happen, so a bunch of people jumped and freaked out a bit. I, being a bit of a smart-ass, just said, "Well, this is it! The Russians have launched." No one laughed except for some really old folks who probably dealt with that their whole lives.

Between the EAS an being trained to crouch in the hall at school with your head between your knees, growing up in the US is interesting.

23:05 Lol if you get an incoming missile alert, there's no time to sell your house or leave the country. All you have time to do is seek shelter and pray.

I’m 78 and we used to rehearse getting under our desks when in school

Most of these alarms are just required tests of the Emergency Alert System, but always pay attention to them.

It's absolutely true -- and vital for saving lives. Tornados form quickly ... and you need to get out of its path and seek appropriate shelter if your area is threatened. You may only have a few minutes. Today, the alerts can also be broadcast to every cellphone as well.

I grew up, So California Beach town, with a "shit has hit the fan" warning test on the 3rd Thursday of each month. You could hear the sirens going off up and down the beach cities. I live in Texas now with tornado warnings. Many tornados have come within a mile from my home. Just last week one touched down 5 miles away so yes, I can appreciate the warnings and how attention getting they are.

It's crazy when I'm in class with my students, and the emergency alert system test goes off, and everyone's phone starts going berserk!

Andre. Watch the 1998 movie Twister. It's a good movie and will show you some of those Tornado chasers. I grew up hearing those ebs tests on TV. The reason they added the TV alerts for weather is because if you were far from a siren and had your TV loud, you might not hear it. This way, they could be sure to reach as many people as possible.

I’ve experienced the tv alert, but instead of it being for tornadoes, it was a flash flood warning. And also in my experience, the tv show im watching would still play, but the sound would become muted. Then the scary voice would talk over the muted tv show explaining a flash flood warning for my area. However, I was never scared. I was use to it happening. Especially during spring and summer when we have severe thunderstorms and hurricanes in and near South Carolina.

22:14 A lot of people still watch TV, but usually through a third party streaming app where the EAS alert doesn't get pushed through. Not many people watch cable in the US anymore.

Like others said… today we have them on phones. We also have more types of alerts like “Amber Alerts” if there was a child kidnapping.

I grew up in New York City in the 1960s, and the sirens were tested every day at noon. I'm old enough to remember the Cuban Missile Crisis, so I knew what these sirens were for. We also had "duck and cover" drills at school, and two or three times we even had to go down to the basement and sit on the floor with our arms covering our heads. Even as a kid I realized that these efforts would do little to protect us, since we were effectively at Ground Zero for any attack. They stopped the duck-and-cover drills sometime around 1968, and I think they stopped the siren testing in the mid 1970s. (We didn't live in NYC any more, so I'm not sure exactly when.) Since then I've only heard the sirens for tornado warnings.

As a kid lived within 20 miles of Indian Point Nuclear Power Plant. Every couple of months there would be "tests" of the emergency broadcast and sirens. EVERY time, into my 30's when I would hear exactly what you heard, I was 100% certain I was about to melt into a pile of goo. Once the internet was a thing, fast-forward to me feverishly googling if Indian Point has a scheduled test... At least there was that... BUT what was even harder? Pretending I wasn't scared for my children when it happened. Straight lying through my teeth...

Man I remember I was out to dinner with my family, the diner was packed and it was raining pretty hard. My phone was the first to go off, it was a severe flood warning (we lived by the ocean). Not even thirty seconds later, each cell phone in the diner went off. Emergency broadcast messages are intertwined to most devices, it’s in the public’s biggest safety interest

In upstate New York we got an EAS over our phones telling people not to stop in the side of the highway during the solar eclipse.

18:11 so that is why when it effects a large area those first tones can be so long and the longer they are the scarier it is.

"Ever experienced this"? They have regular routine tests of the emergency alert systems; so yea. They always make sure to follow it up with "this is a test". Now they're also able to be sent to your cell. This means we get alerts over siren, radio, tv, cell... it increases the chances that all people will receive it if need be, whether you're in the car, watching the news, or scrolling your cellphone. Yes - it'll override the program playing.

Here in Chicago, In Illinois, we go through alot tornado sirens, and other alerts on TV and phones.

We grew up with the EBS and the EAS alerts. It was and is a terrifying sound to hear. The people following storms are called Storm Chasers. They work hand-in-hand with the Weather Service to keep the meteorologists informed on the type of storm and if a tornado has touched down, where it touched down, and what direction the tornado is headed.

When you live in Tornado Alley these emergency alerts are essential. When I was a kid in the 1950s-60s there would be evenings when there would be nothing on the TV except one tornado warning after another. Really scary.

the scariest is when you're on the road somewhere you don't know and one of these goes off on your phone. no place to hide, no idea where you are, just hope you can outrun the storm

For those of us who grew up hearing those alerts, it's no big thing. Just calmly get to a place of safety.

The National Weather System still sounds like that in Indiana where I live

I was that kid in the 80's, I'm fine and so are all of my old friends. We aren't scarred by these tests.

Yep, the National Weather Service will break into TV for severe weather alerts. Severe thunderstorm warnings, tornado watches, tornado warnings, blizzards, floods, etc. Will also get alerts on radio and cell phones. We also get tests from the Emergency Broadcast (Alert) System. I grew up in the height of the cold war during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Definitely scary stuff when you're a kid. Scary as an adult too. The severe weather alerts saves lives. Remember, we have a lot of tornadoes here in the Midwest.

I grew up in the 1950's and 1960's. We actually had duck and cover drills in school. Now we rely on a special weather radio that can be programmed to respond to different local alerts by the National Weather Service. We have our radio set to sound an alarm for Severe Thunderstorm and Tornado Watches and Warnings. Living in Tornado Alley it is almost a necessity. Then, once we are alerted, the local TV stations have meteorologists on staff that will track the storms on Doppler Radar and tell exactly where damaging winds and hail will hit. Storm chasers provide a great service by confirming exactly where tornados touch down and what direction they are moving.

Local sirens go off each Tuesday morning at 10am to test the sirens. if I hear those at another date/time, could mean a tornado warning (which means there is a tornado touchdown somewhere close). The weather stations also put out tornado watches, meaning the conditions are right for severe weather to occur. Tornados are so damaging that it's well worth it to notify people to get to their shelter, in a basement or an interior room away from windows. It can make a difference. Years ago I worked for a company that produced the Thunderbolt siren. My dad also worked there and he told me the only way to test in the factory was in a soundproof room with sound meters. No human could be in the room or their organs would be damaged.

We had a warning in my neighborhood on February 28th that woke me up around 5:15 AM. We had a F1 that hit my neighborhood that day in Ohio. That’s not a really bad tornado but it did take out a house and did some damage to the area. There were several more to hit on 3/14/23 in Ohio. There were 3 deaths an hour away from me in Indian Lake, Ohio. Scary sound

As a Canadian, I can confirm that is our emergency alert system. The only problem is it doesn't go out on all phones. My hubby and I were camping once and his alarm went off about severe weather and possible tornado. My phone didn't go off. I don't have a smart phone. So, while trailers across the lake from where we were, were being picked up and thrown into the lake we weren't too sure what to do as the wind shook our tent trailer. There really were no solid buildings around us to take shelter in anyways.

Yes the EBS (Emergency Broadcasting System) is a real thing where they will interrupt any tv show to let you know we are having an emergency situation. Now it also alerts you through your cell phone. The first Tuesday of every month they test our Tornado Sirens here in our small little central Illinois town. We’re used to it. They are more annoying than anything but yet we know they are needful and need to be tested to make sure they are in good working order. They go off a lot in the Spring and Summer months as that is prime tornado season but thankfully in the 55 years I’ve been living here, we’ve seen tornados on the ground out in the field at a distance but have never had one actually hit our town. They’ve came close within a mile though. We’ve had to go to the basement a couple of times but most times we don’t go to the basement when tornado sirens go off, we just ride it out in the house or go outside to see if we can see it or see them as sometimes there’s more than one tornado at a time.

I learned young not to depend on TV, radio or phones for alerts. When a tornado takes out stations,towers and electricity you can only get the sirens. And for me that's reassuring.

They have them around damns as well. It's meant to warn people if the damn breaks. I remember when I was in about 5th grade, I was walking to the corner store on my way home, and the sirens went off. It was just a drill, but I didn't know that at the time. I RAN home freaking out.

When it all goes off while you're asleep and you wake to figure things out, it can be frightening. I get the TV going, my cell phone going, and the tornado sirens going when a tornado touches down. Just happen a few weeks ago when a tornado landed by me. We scampered to the basement as a tornado ravaged a neighborhood down the street, then made its way across the Ohio River to KY. Look up the tornados that happened about 2 weeks ago in Jeffersonville, IN, then followed through KY.

I think everyone in the states has heard this EAS test....they have weekly tests usually...and every time it goes off you will hear "This is a test of the Emergency alert system.....beeeeeeeeeep!

I experienced the emergency alert noise on the radio probably last year as I was driving on the interstate. I got a text on my phone and then the radio alert went off and the announcement was a tornado touchdown and it was heading toward mile marker 99 through 105, and of course I had just hit mile marker 99. So you bet your butt I sped up to get through that before the tornado would reach it. I noticed debris started in the air. So yes, they are very helpful for tornadoes because you don’t have much time to react when one touches down specially if it would be at night.

EAS is a very reassuring system. In Colorado we have a lot of different weather phenomenon, like blizzards, severe wind storms, severe hailstorms or things like wildfires, or child aduction alerts. Its very useful especially that they now connect to phones especially for things that might shut down most of an areas power like blizzards.

Yep, have the tornado sirens, the tv, and cell phone alerts

I moved to the Midwest from the East Coast. I was terrified when my ears were blown out when an emergency alert for a tornado came over my mobile. Unfortunately, I was wearing Bluetooth earbuds. Later I learned the tornado sirens were tested every Friday, so I was prepared.

We also have a warning system in a several mile radius around all of our nuclear power plants.

When I was a young child in the 60's, they would run the EBS tests on TV periodically. As soon as I saw the test warning "this is only a test" I would run to my bedroom and literally the hide under my bed and cover my ears. It was so scary to me! They weren't used for weather or anything else back then, so never saw a "real" one until I was an adult. These warning signals while at home were in addition to all the "duck & cover" drills in school to practice what to do in event of a nuclear attack (like getting under your desk was going to protect you!). I grew up on the West Coast and the fear was real!! At least the practice wasn't wasted - "duck & cover" is the right move for earthquakes.

it comes really handy when a tornado is near and headed to you they can warn by tv before it gets near, it's a scary good thing to have new tvs the Emergency Alert Systems will be on bottom of the screen while video is muted with the warning alarm now, this EMS video is more likely from 90s to early 2000s

I live in Chicago. Grew up in the 80s. The city didn't have cable yet, so we just had broadcast tv from local stations. When the strong storms would come, we'd put the tv on.. and then the storm warning messages would cut into the programming. Every strong thunderstorm is ominous because we are prone to tornadoes. I did love the monospaced font they would use.

I was surprised to learn that most countries dont have amber alerts. I mean in America if a child goes missing they will send a alert out to everyones phone telling us the details of what the child looks like and is wearing as well as who they may be with and what color of car, type of car, and license plate number of suspected vehicle

Grew up in small town Kansas, have heard lots of tornadoe warnings in my life. I havent lived there in 20 years and have not had to hear a siren in 20 years. I remember them very well.

Just three days ago, the emergency weather alert was coming across my phone due to storms and flooding in the area. I grew up in the 1980s and those tests were on all the time. They never freaked me out as they always started with "This is test."

As American I can say every time I hear the eas system I literally poop my pants

I remember when I got a tornado alert in traffic. I was at least an hour away from home and just got done talking with my parents about what clouds make tornadoes when the EAS on my moms phone goes off. Then all the cars in front of us and beside us also get it (their drivers looked down at the same time and I could see on ahead of us get it on the screen) I panicked for hours, all of us huddled in the basement until my brother (who worked in the fire department) said it was safe I’m never going to forget that and whenever the EAS goes off for a test I’m brought back to that moment We were fine though so it’s all good, tornado didn’t come close

I just wanted to say that was another great video…. I love learning about things like this and watching your reactions are like watching with a like minded person!

I remember the testing for the emergency alert system on the tv and the radio, don't use those mediums anymore so I don't notice them any longer, but I get the occasional phone test.

Where I live we have tornado sirens that are tested every day at noon because we’re in the middle of tornado alley. While they can be terrifying, when you’re in the midst of a supercell you’re extremely thankful for any amount of advanced warning. I’ve had friends and family have their home picked up and scattered miles away and the only reason they survived was because the sirens let them know to get to their shelters. I’ve driven into the path of a few smaller tornadoes by accident with one of them literally pushing me off the road into a ditch. The storms can turn day into night in a matter of minutes. It’s a very humbling experience watching a tornado dissipate or turn away from where you live.

This sort of stuff happens often. Where I live, they usually test the sirens on like the 1st Saturday of every month, and those annoying, loud EAS systems will broadcast something whenever there's a bad storm, so...

Every where I've lived in the southern US the tornado sirens test at noon on Wednesday. EVERYWHERE ( that I've lived or worked anyways) but the town i live now has sirens go off at random times. No one will pay attention at some point due to that. It's very frustrating

18:30 EAS is still active, and during tornado season, it's a lifesaver.

Commuters still listen to the radio. A lot of people still watch TV too.

As an american who has been through many tornadoes and severe storms...these alerts are very important. Since the tornado alley of america has shifted and grown, a lot of newer parts dont have sirens, basements, or any shelters. So knowing something's coming your way so you can grab the pillows and matresses and head to the bathroom tub is helpful. Weather gets horrific over here. I'll never forget turning on the news at 11 pm and seeing my mom's workplace with the roof of another building slammed into it with the city's power and cell out. Scared the life outta me as a kid but once i actually saw and heard a tornado for the first time ive been real grateful.

At 72, I grew up knowing all three. CONELRAD, the EBS, and the EAS. I was raised on a farm until I was 12, and that's when I heard my first CD siren. Get the alerts on the computer and phone now, but I love the weather, so I'm usually watching a few choice youtube weather sages when I know the chances of rotation are good. So I love the new technology when it's used for storm tracking. Quick warnings can save lives. Storm chasers are the "eyes on the ground" who confirm the tornado, its current location, and its direction of travel. The chasers are a great asset, but lately, so many of our country roads have turned into tornadic traffic jams of energetic weather loving tornado hunters. It's a war zone out there! 😉♥

Well I don't pay for TV just internet, but I've had the sirens and my phone go off at the same time with the same alert from the TV. Yes, even cable does it. Why do it for weather?... not all towns have sirens. Yes there are chasers who do it as a profession, often those chasers help us understand what is happening and where it's going. Besides collecting data to make better warnings and understand them more, they also save lives by keeping people aware of exactly where it is going. In case you don't know Amber alerts are missing or abducted children. They send out a description of the child and abductor if relevant in hopes that a bunch of people knowing immediately makes it more likely they will find the child alive.

I recognized the voice of the announcer doing the WFIL alert. That was Jim O'Brien, who was one of the station's "boss jocks" in those years. He would go on to be a much-beloved weatherman on TV. He once had breakfast at a restaurant where I worked. The whole city was shocked on the day he died in a parachute mishap (jumping out of airplanes was one of his hobbies).

When I lived in Florida the alert made me happy because hurricane means class was canceled and we could party. Florida changes a man and I got a 4 year degree there.

I do watch TV and listen to radio, but that is because I grew up in tornado alley. When the sky went dark grey you stick close to your TV and radio.

I grew up during the "duck and cover" Cold War days and, although I've only ever heard system tests, Civil Defense messages were terrifying. They were scary times in general, with the threat of nuclear war in the back of everyone's mind. Things sometimes get scary today, too, because so many countries have nuclear weapons. It's pretty much the definition of a two-edged sword.

They test the system several times a year. They test the outdoor sirens every four months or so, especially right before hurricane season begins on June 1. The season goes from June 1 to November 30.

In Central Florida in 2004 four hurricanes came through in less than three weeks. The first and most severe was Charlie and it went through places that hadn't been hit in thirty years. I really knocked communications out almost completely for four or five days. One of the local radio stations had its own very powerful generator. One of the DJs from a popular show called Monsters in the Morning had the foresight to spend the night at the station, which had been evacuated, with an engineer who also volunteered to stay. If it hadn't been for them there would not have been any information for the public at all. The DJ had folks call in to share information about everything you can imagine in that environment. The emergency services monitored the broadcast too. So downed live power lines, blocked roads, trapped folks etc, had the fastest way to get help for their neighbors or from their neighbors. It was also able to sound EAS for tornado warnings from storms the next day that cut through the radio signal. After 2004, most communities added small emergency radio stations for future emergencies.

"The screeching sound" S.A.M.E. is still used in many cases, especially on cell phones, in rural areas. When he said that no one watches TV or listens to the radio, in rural areas we almost always have the radio on when in the vehicles, and generally the TV's are always on, but these alerts only show up on local channels.

I remember i got jump scared from a amber alert😭

It does interrupt whatever tv program we are watching but sometimes it goes right back to your program after the alert depending on what kind of emergency alert it is. You've seen our storms/tornadoes here in the USA so yes, the butt in on our tv shows, even if it's on cable tv, to alert us about things that could potentially hurt or kill us that might be coming our way. It also alerts us about children who have been kidnapped in and around the areas each of us live and it alerts for several other important happenings.

Yes, it’s to alert you of bad weather. To help you get ready for a tornado, hurricane (the two coincide). I heard the in my small town. Get your children, pets to a safe space

They also had these emergency alerts for massive thunderstorms that were expected to create extreme lightening, hail, and large amounts of rain. We did not live in a tornado area, in Northern California. They would just interrupt what ever you were watching. This doesn't really happen on a cable stations today, because they are not local. The local stations still do this, but often it is a ticker tape across the top of the screen now. Where I live now, we get the occasional tornado, severe thunderstorms, and blizzards. We do not have sirens, so we use the local channel ticker tape along with this sound, and our cell phones go off with a similar sound, triggered by the state emergency services. They are so loud, they will literally make you jump, and if you are asleep, you would be jarred out of sleep almost violently.

Our emergency sirens are tested every Saturday at noon. They go off for any tornado warning in our area. It’s definitely loud enough to hear inside your house.

13:24 | They have whole teams and companies dedicated on chasing tornadoes. They also have cars designed to attempt to withstand them

Memphis, TN (US) had a shelter-in-place alert just last year, when some young man with a gun absolutely snapped and was driving all over the city in a series of carjacked automobiles, shooting people randomly, killing one. The police were hunting him via the calls placed by victims and, ultimately, by Facebook, once it was realized he was live-streaming his shooting rampage to the world, ranting the whole time. On days like that, you are grateful for the shelter-in-place alert. Those who missed it were left vulnerable to this nutter, unless called by a friend or relative and alerted that way. That young man shut down the entire metropolitan area on a Sunday, from 10:00 AM until 3:43 PM, when he was finally captured after a heated manhunt by local, State, and Federal authorities. I hope he never gets out of prison.

Now you know why people in America are terrified of the end of the world EAS is terrifying and the last thing you want to hear, the biohazard/nuclear EAS is the most haunting and terrifying of them all

0:00 As an OG Gen X'er... you get used to it. It was created during the Cold War to warn of impending nuclear attacks, and other national emergencies such as tornados, etc. As someone else said, now you get it sent to your phone. My jump-scare nerve is far from burned out from childhood trauma... I just turn an ear to the sound and listen for the voice to say "This is a test of the Emergency Alert System. This is only a test" BRRRRAAAAK BRRRRAKKK BRRAAAAK. Anything else... I look for a flimsy desk to crouch under to make it easier to find my body in the rubble. 2:05 Exactly. 100%. Overrides everything... on every channel... even a 10000 channel cable service. 5:10 I got to learn something new. That's neat. 10:10 That's hilarious. The fear was burned out of you about age 10 when you realized you were f'd if it ever happened. Red Dawn... now that even f'd more of us up. :) 18:30 Yes. Still occurs, but rare in my area... so when you hear the tones you pay attention. It's only on my phone that I get it. They send the alert to all the cell towers in a certain area instead and has same effect. They can really pinpoint an area better too with that method. I don't watch TV and only watch RU-vid and get news by Facebook memes. LOL! 22:15 A lot of people don't watch the news. They lost a lot of people with the whole Cov-AIDS oogie boogie crap. People are tired of the resurrection of Hitler's "Department of Propaganda and Public Enlightenment"

Yes, been through this many times in Texas and Indiana.

Yes I have experienced emergency alerts. Yes, emergency alerts on TV interrupt what you are watching. Yes, they come on your cell phones, and radios. Yes, the city sends out alarms, too. You’ve seen tornado videos. They have to let you know these things are heading toward you. Sometimes you have minutes. I’m sure there are more than just tornado/storm warnings, but those are the ones I know, because I live in the Midwest.

I live in the Midwest so tornados are common. It’s so freaking with the phone too. The alarms are really creepy. They are tested monthly and it’s anxiety provoking from trauma lol

Yes this still happens all the time, sometimes because there's an alert, sometimes because they're testing and sometimes when there are criminals lose in the area. And alot of the times they are sent to your phone.

I am glad we have this system for any type of emergency! Love when your in a class or a meeting and every phone goes off.

I was a kid in the 80's and the EBS signal tests popping up on TV definitely has a place in my subconcsious.

21:34 I've seen other videos like the one he's reacting too before, the countdown is actually for earthquakes so it's basically a 1 minute countdown until your doom

The Emergency Alerts still come across on television and radio in the US today, but also on our cell phones. For those of us living in tornado alley, it's a sound we hear often, especially in the spring when tornadoes are most common.

The one he called the S.A.M.E. sound is the alert I grew up with. That is how we knew there was a severe thunderstorm warning. It meant that a severe thunderstorm was coming toward us. Now most people get their alerts through their cell phones. Ideally, everyone should have a weather radio. It will deliver the emergency alert in a computerized voice that will repeat the message over and over. When there is no emergency or warning, it will tell you the weather for your local area. A storm chaser is very important. Besides chasing the severe weather and documenting it, they are essential weather spotters, also. A weather spotter is someone on the ground level who visually sees the tornado, hail, funnel cloud or whatever bad weather is happening and they report it to their local weather station or law enforcement. Police and firefighters can be weather spotters, too. There is special training to be an official weather spotter. In most cases, a tornado warning is issued based on the radar and they don't know if a tornado is actually there, it is radar indicated. The radar doesn't work at ground level, only up high in the sky. So storm chasers will visually see the tornado or debris and report it. Then they can confirm that a tornado is actually on the ground.

We have had emergency broadcast alerts in Northern California, but they have been warning about natural disasters like river cresting/possible flooding during massive rainstorms. In the fire storms, those areas had tv and cell phone alerts. We have also had them when the levees breached in 2023. There was also the Oroville dam spillway failure in 2017 which prompted the evacuation of nearly 200,000 people downstream.

In really small towns we have volunteer fire departments. Back before cell phones, the town alarms would go off in the middle of the night sometimes. You'd have to wake up enough to figure out if it was a call for fire fighters or take shelter for tornado. And yes, they still test the system on network tv at night and test the sirens once a month

We also have fire alerts. Living in a small town in the US the fire departments have alarms that you can hear for several miles. When you live next to the fire department and the alarm goes off you fly out of bed.

I used to live near a nuclear power plant on the east coast. We didn't have tornado sirens, we had the meltdown siren. There were signs all over the area nearby saying that if you hear the siren you need to flee the area immediately. I can't remember what day it was, but once a month at 2pm they would test it, and if it ever went off ANY other time, that was the 'hey kiss your ass goodbye because you're about to glow in the dark' alarm. Now I live in Florida, and while I haven't heard any air-raid-siren type alarms, we do get alerts sent to our cell phones, mostly for severe thunderstorms with tornadoes (rare, but happens, especially with the squall line bands in a hurricane), or amber and silver alerts (missing/abducted child is an amber alert, missing senior citizen with dimentia is a silver alert). If WWIII ever kicks off I'm sure we'll get one about incoming missiles then, too, since i live within 20 miles of 2 different major military bases. But, since houses in Florida dont have basements, it too will be very much a 'hey dude, you got 30 minutes to get right with god before we all find out what the surface of the sun feels like'

Growing up in the 1970s I remember these alerts happening for severe weather. Tornadoes, hurricanes, blizzards...that kind of thing.

Atlanta here. We just had a tornado siren 2 wks ago. The most frequent is our Amber alert for kidnapped kids, there's 1 for dementia or elderly who wander off from home, and weather which includes hurricane if you are closet to Hilton Head, in Savannah. The SE does not have massive fires like the west because we live in a subtropical or tropical climate if u live closer to FL. It's just too wet to burn. We have heat warnings typically when it is over 40C/100F . People will leave windows closed and turn fans on which turns the home into a convection over and people sadly cook to death. Want to come visit?