All you need to know about the phone alert planned for Sunday week.

TEST

Gary Knowles, Director of Civil Defence Emergency Management says Emergency Mobile Alert is a vital information channel for alerting people to threats to their life, health or property.

“The nationwide test is a way to check our systems, the cell towers and your phone’s ability to receive an Emergency Mobile Alert, so we have confidence it will perform as it should in an emergency.

Mr Knowles says when emergencies happen, Emergency Mobile Alert is a vital channel to help keep our communities safe.

“Our findings from the 2021 Disaster preparedness survey reported that 90% of New Zealanders either received a EMA themselves or were near someone who did in the last year. This is great and I think we’re likely to see a similar proportion receiving an alert to their phone on test night this year.”