TAMPA. Fla. (WFLA) — Everbridge, the company responsible for sending an early-morning emergency alert to millions of sleeping Floridians Thursday, offered an apology for the incident.
“If you or anyone you know was awakened by a test alert on your phone at 4:45 a.m. on Thursday, April 20, I’m sorry,” Everbridge CEO David Wagner said in an apology letter penned to Floridians.
“It should not have happened. But it did, and here’s why.”
Before the sun could rise, Floridians’ phones sounded off at 4:45 a.m. with a chime commonly associated with an Amber Alert.
When residents looked at their phones, the screen read: “TEST – This is a TEST of the Emergency Alert System. No action is required.”
“Essentially, human errors caused the alert to go out,” Wagner wrote in the letter.
The company said it violated “a number of routine precautionary steps that should have been followed prior to the release of any emergency notification.”
“In this instance, our system delivered the message as designed – that’s the good news,” Wagner continued. “The bad news is a live message was inadvertently sent to millions of residents’ cell phones, instead of a notification sent only to Florida broadcasters. That notification should not have been sent to you.”
Moving forward, Everbridge said it will re-examine its procedures and add “further safeguards” so only necessary alerts can be sent.
“Our job at Everbridge is to give you and all of Florida’s emergency departments, at the state and county level, peace of mind so you can sleep through the night knowing you will be awoken and alerted if there is a hurricane or an imminent life-threatening event,” Wagner said. “The last thing we want to do is wake you up when you should be asleep.”
Hours after the incident, the Florida Division of Emergency Management ended its contract with Everbridge.
