Damn near had a heart attack at 4 am this morning (1 Viewer)

[TheIronSheik]

The Emergency Broadcast System issued an alert for a Flood Warning at 4 am which caused my iPhone to play a sound similar to a firetruck driving through my bedroom. When your alarm clock goes off, you wake up OK because you know it's your alarm clock. If your smoke alarm goes off, you wake up slightly panicked because it's loud, but you know it's your smoke alarm. When a loud siren goes off and wakes you up and you don't know what it is, that is downright terrifying!

And is a Flood Warning really that necessary to blare a siren like that? I get that some are affected, but I live on top of a freaking hill. The river that's flooding somewhere in my county will only reach me after the entire eastern seaboard floods. We had a Tornado Warning a week ago that didn't warrant the EBS sending an alert to my phone. That seems WAAAAAAY more important than a river flood warning.

 

[AAABatteries]

Can't you turn those notifications off?

 

[Capella]

There is an option to turn that bull#### off. First thing I do when I get a new phone. Learned the hard way.

 

[TheIronSheik]

Can't you turn those notifications off?

Possibly. But I don't remember ever having one of those so I didn't know I should turn it off.

 

[ClownCausedChaos2]

My wife and I were in a restaurant once when one of those came out. Everyone's phone went off, so it was amplified x100. It sounds like the fire alarm of the actual building was going off. There were a lot of confused looks.

 

[Buddy Ball 2K3]

Phone going nuts at 3am made the dogs go nuts at 3am, meaning I got 2 hours of sleep and thus I am going nuts at 9:15 am.

 

[zoobird]

My phone went off with a flash flood warning seconds after passing through customs from Canada. I thought for sure they had busted me for something.

 

[TheIronSheik]

My phone went off with a flash flood warning seconds after passing through customs from Canada. I thought for sure they had busted me for something.

 

[The_Man]

Same GD thing happened to us last night at about 2 a.m. Then tried to convince my wife that since we were now both awake with our heart rates already elevated, we should make the most of it.

That, like the flash flood warning, turned out to be a totally unwelcome intrusion.

 

[RUSF18]

A couple years ago there was a fairly big story in NYC about the issuance of an amber alert at like 4am. It was for a missing 7 month old and while everyone surely understands the importance of these types of things, a lot of people were pissed about it going off at that time. Not about interrupting sleep...but usually when your phone goes off at that time, people worry something is wrong with someone they know or that they might be in some kind of immediate danger. It's a tough issue.

 

[comfortably numb]

A couple years ago there was a fairly big story in NYC about the issuance of an amber alert at like 4am. It was for a missing 7 month old and while everyone surely understands the importance of these types of things, a lot of people were pissed about it going off at that time. Not about interrupting sleep...but usually when your phone goes off at that time, people worry something is wrong with someone they know or that they might be in some kind of immediate danger. It's a tough issue.

I was told I was a selfish monster for turning my amber alert notice off.

Thing went off at 2AM and 4AM one night for a missing child 2 states away.

Can't they figure out a way to just send a text instead of a notice that sounds like the Germans are bombing Pearl Harbor again?

 

[Ditkaless Wonders]

Before opening the thread I thought perhaps the hornets had chosen that moment for their revenge. I'm glad you are alright.

 

[RUSF18]

A couple years ago there was a fairly big story in NYC about the issuance of an amber alert at like 4am. It was for a missing 7 month old and while everyone surely understands the importance of these types of things, a lot of people were pissed about it going off at that time. Not about interrupting sleep...but usually when your phone goes off at that time, people worry something is wrong with someone they know or that they might be in some kind of immediate danger. It's a tough issue.

I was told I was a selfish monster for turning my amber alert notice off.

Thing went off at 2AM and 4AM one night for a missing child 2 states away.

Can't they figure out a way to just send a text instead of a notice that sounds like the Germans are bombing Pearl Harbor again?

And that leads to the problem. When you send blaring audio alerts to people at 4am, they go into their phones and turn off the notifications which defeats the purpose of sending the alerts in the first place. If they did it in a bit more subtle of a way, it would reach more people.

 

[Freelove]

When some horrifying air-raid siren type sound I've never heard before goes off at 4AM, I assume it's intrusive Apple psychoware and hope I remember to disable it in the morning.

When the actual phone rings at 4AM, I damn near have a heart attack, because that's almost always worse news than a mere air raid.

 

[TheIronSheik]

My wife and I were in a restaurant once when one of those came out. Everyone's phone went off, so it was amplified x100. It sounds like the fire alarm of the actual building was going off. There were a lot of confused looks.

Mine and my fiance's phones went off at the same time last night, too. It was in stereo.

 

[Kal El]

Before opening the thread I thought perhaps the hornets had chosen that moment for their revenge. I'm glad you are alright.

I thought that too.

 

[Ketamine Dreams]

Had an Amber Alert do the same thing to my phone while at work the other day. It's a frightening alarm.

 

[Shane Falco]

I must be doing it wrong since I don't sleep with my cell phone

 

[tom22406]

Was it a flood of bees?

 

[DocHolliday]

Was it a flood of bees?

No. He flooded his lawnmower again. The neighbor had to come over to fix it again.

 

[ffldrew]

Had an Amber Alert do the same thing to my phone while at work the other day. It's a frightening alarm.

I had one of these for some incident in Greeley where they thought the ex who took the kid was heading to Wyoming - all at 4 in the morning on both my phone and tablet - some 60 to 100 miles from my house.

 

[tom22406]

My house is right in the flight path for military exercises from time to time.Nothing beats a 3am flyover about 100 feet above your house from what sounds to be 3 or 4 Ospreys.Feels like an earthquake it shakes so bad.

 

[msommer]

My house is right in the flight path for military exercises from time to time.Nothing beats a 3am flyover about 100 feet above your house from what sounds to be 3 or 4 Ospreys.Feels like an earthquake it shakes so bad.

Ospreys are awesome!

 

[Donkey Derp]

Can't you turn those notifications off?

Possibly. But I don't remember ever having one of those so I didn't know I should turn it off.

Settings->Notifications

 

[Joe Summer]

The alert should have been programmed to play the sound of rushing water.