WSU Alert test scheduled for Thursday

IAN SMAY, Evergreen reporter

The WSU Office of Emergency Management will test the WSUAlert system at 12:05 p.m. Thursday.

All people currently signed up to receive emergency alerts will receive test alerts, according to a news release. This includes text messages, phone calls and emails depending on what the person selected to receive when they signed up. Computer pop-ups and the outdoor warning siren will also be used during the test.

“It’s something that we do every semester,” said Sarah Blatner, Emergency Management program coordinator.

Over 20,000 people on or associated with the Pullman campus are signed up for the alerts, and Blatner said that the message reaches all of those people within five minutes of being issued.

“We have a pretty robust system,” Blatner said, “that has been updated in the last, probably, five years or so. Unless there are people that haven’t updated their contact information or moved away or that sort of thing, it reaches all of the numbers that are in the system.”

Faculty, staff and students are prompted to sign up for the alerts with a pop-up the first time they sign-in to their MyWSU account. Blatner said that they also send emails and heavily advertise the alert system.

Reporting by Ian Smay