My New York-based son says his buddies were saying a few days ago, "This storm must be real, my phone is doing weird things". They were referring to storm alerts their mobile devices were mysteriously receiving. When my son asked, "Is that an app, or how did you sign up?", his buddies told him that they had no idea why they were getting the alerts, but were glad they were.
Of course, we know (at least I hope all readers know by now) the alerts were coming from FEMA's Commercial Mobile Alert System (CMAS) also known as Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) by the carriers, and Personal Localized Alerting Network (PLAN) by the City of New York. With CMAS/WEA/PLAN, there's no need for the public to sign-up. The public automatically gets alerts if they have a wireless device that has been set up to receive the alerts (growing numbers are), if their carrier is participating (most are), and if they're within the affected area.
Well, CMAS/WEA/PLAN certainly got the attention of my son and his buddies and, yes, Patrick, this storm was for real.
All the best,
Rick
