At approximately 2:28 a.m. on Saturday, Nov. 22, many Guilford County residents received a Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) related to the law enforcement incident on Creekwood Drive in Greensboro. The emergency services agencies within Guilford County utilize a third-party vendor to send WEAs, as is required by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Due to an error within that system, the alert was sent to all wireless subscribers within Guilford County instead of a geographically targeted group, as was intended.
All agencies associated with this response apologize for the interruption. The responsibility of sending these alerts is treated with the utmost respect and seriousness. We are investigating this issue with the vendor and taking steps to ensure that it does not occur again in the future.
Wireless Emergency Alerts are a critical public safety tool for delivering life-saving information to mobile devices during imminent threats like severe weather, public safety emergencies and America's Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response (AMBER) Alerts. Disabling these notifications may result in the missing of vital information which could have dangerous repercussions. Guilford County Emergency Services urges all residents and visitors to keep Wireless Emergency Alerts enabled on their devices to help stay informed in the event of an emergency.