Massive emergency alert test scheduled to hit phones on Wednesday. Here's what to know.

On Wednesday morning, phones across the Borough and beyond will have an alarm blaring. Officials say that it will be all goo and to not freak out. On Wednesday, 10:20 a.m., every TV, radio and cellphone in the Mat-Su Borough and beyond is scheduled to blast out the distinctive, jarring electronic warning tone of an emergency alert.

But it is only a test.

Officially known as the Nationwide Emergency Alert Test, it is designed to test a vital way to make sure that if something really bad – and really big – happens, Americans can be warned quickly.

Here's what to know about the test.

The national test consists of two parts, which occur in conjunction with one another, in order to test the Emergency Alert System (EAS) and the Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA), according to FEMA.

The WEA will be directed to all cellphones, while the EAS will notify all radio and television broadcasters, cable systems, satellite radio and television providers and wireline video providers, ensuring that the message will be heard and seen virtually everywhere. It is being conducted with the participation of radio and television broadcasters, cable systems, satellite radio companies, and cellphones networks.

All across the United States, broadcast TV shows and radio will be interrupted as the emergency message goes out, reminding viewer of the test.

Cellphones will get the warning as a tone, a vibration and as a text message that reads:

“THIS IS A TEST of the National Wireless Emergency Alert System. No action is needed.”

“The EAS will look and sound similar to the test messages we send once per month,” says Scott Nelsen, Telecommunications / GIS for the Alaska State Emergency Operations Center.

“The WEA is distinct from the text messages you regularly receive; the phone will beep loudly and display a message right onto your screen. Apple phone users who have the latest update (iOS 17) can also tap on the message and receive additional text,” says Nelsen. This is a feature only available on Apple, and Nelsen says it is not associated with the government, though he is hopeful that Android users will get the same feature sometime in the future.

Only cellphones that are turned on will receive the message. If a phone is on but the sound and vibration features are turned off, recipients will still get the message.

If a phone is set to Wi-Fi or is in airplane mode, it will not be able to receive the alert as the message will go out over the cellular broadcast system.

The test is scheduled to last approximately one minute. It will only go out once and there will be no repeats.

Once the test is completed, Nelsen is asking for public participation in a quick survey as his office plans to gather information of how many residents received the emergency alert.

“I’d like everyone to visit our website that day at www.ready.alaska.gov/ or just type ready.alaska.gov into your browser and follow the link to the brief survey posted there.”

The survey is anonymous and no personal information will be requested.