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Canada Accidentally Sent an Emergency Alert About a Nuclear 'Incident'

Canada Accidentally Sent an Emergency Alert About a Nuclear 'Incident'

4 years ago
Anonymous $yQ5BfQaAxy

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/5dmbv5/canada-accidentally-sent-an-emergency-alert-about-a-nuclear-incident

Imagine waking up with an official message on your phone from the government telling you there’d been an incident at a nearby nuclear power plant, but also not to worry about it. That’s what happened to people across Ontario on Sunday. Phones started buzzing at 7:30AM. A push notification from Canada’s emergency alert system informed the public that an incident had occurred at the Pickering Nuclear Generating Station. The push alert didn’t explain what the incident was and told readers that the government was in control and there was no need to worry.

Officials later told the press that they knew immediately that message was an error. But it took 40 minutes for authorities to get the message out, another hour before it pushed out a cancellation to phones. For almost two hours, people in Ontario wondered if there’d been a nuclear disaster nearby.

Canada Accidentally Sent an Emergency Alert About a Nuclear 'Incident'

Jan 13, 2020, 6:23pm UTC
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/5dmbv5/canada-accidentally-sent-an-emergency-alert-about-a-nuclear-incident > Imagine waking up with an official message on your phone from the government telling you there’d been an incident at a nearby nuclear power plant, but also not to worry about it. That’s what happened to people across Ontario on Sunday. Phones started buzzing at 7:30AM. A push notification from Canada’s emergency alert system informed the public that an incident had occurred at the Pickering Nuclear Generating Station. The push alert didn’t explain what the incident was and told readers that the government was in control and there was no need to worry. > Officials later told the press that they knew immediately that message was an error. But it took 40 minutes for authorities to get the message out, another hour before it pushed out a cancellation to phones. For almost two hours, people in Ontario wondered if there’d been a nuclear disaster nearby.