Did You Get an Alert on Your Phone Sunday Morning? Here's What it Was

Did your phone start beeping with an emergency rain alert Sunday morning?

A lot of people's did and they were wondering why and how.

Here's the answer, posted by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on Santa Cruz Patch's Facebook page. (Press like on that page and get regular Patch updates).

Here's what the agency's new social media mavens said:

"Good morning, the alerts you are referring to are the "Wireless Emergency Alerts".

This system was implemented earlier this year. Your ability to receive these alerts is based on the type of phone you have, where you are located relative to the nearest cell tower, and your cell phone carrier.

These warnings will not replace other methods of getting warnings out, but is an additional way for the public to be aware of impending hazardous weather. If you want more information, please visit the information link here: http://www.noaa.gov/features/03_protecting/wireless_emergency_alerts.html"

Here's NOAA's Facebook page, in which they say:

"Social media products are fairly new for our office, so we wanted to find out if you found our Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube pages useful during the past week. Please let us know what you found useful and areas that we could improve our services. Thanks!"

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Is it just plain shocking when government works well?