DANA’s warning message came late, but it seems we are learning our lesson. Since the Valencia tragedy, the Civil Protection system has been activated on multiple occasions to alert the population in risk areas due to heavy rains.
Spain is getting to know ES-Alert all at once, although the truth is that this system has only been around for a year. DANA is being the first litmus test of alerts and we see that the population continues to have many doubts about its operation.
The Civil Protection warning system is a beep that sounds for several seconds and automatically reaches all mobile phones located in a certain area.
The ES-Alert system comes by default (and cannot be disabled)
The ES-Alert system was officially activated in Spain on February 22, 2023. Since then, several pilot tests and simulations have been carried out, but it is now with DANA that it is being used on a large scale to notify the population. However, the technology of these wireless emergency alerts has been integrated into mobile phones since before.
All The phones have the reception of alerts activated by default of Civil Protection, from at least the following versions:
- Android 11 o superior
- iOS 15.6 o superior
That is, except for old and outdated phones, you will receive emergency alerts by default. According to explains Civil Protectionphones with Android 8 or lower do not receive alerts and those with Android 10 or lower do not display the title correctly. Since Android 11, released in September 2020, it is received normally.
In the Android and iOS settings there is an option to allow these alerts, which we can also uncheck. However, we must understand how the ES-Alert system works and why no matter how much we uncheck it, we will continue to receive alerts. As confirmed by Civil Protection: ES-Alert system alerts cannot be disabled.
Why does the deactivate option appear then? This is because wireless emergency alerts can have up to three levels. Unchecking the option is for levels 2 and 3. Level 1 alerts are received by default regardless of what is checked.
The Civil Protection alarms are therefore like this:
- Civil Protection alarm level 1: Imminent emergency. Activated by default without being able to be deactivated. Used by ES-Alert.
- Civil Protection alarm level 2: advice and Pre-Alert for risk situations. It is not activated by default and can be deactivated. In Spain it is not currently in use.
- Civil Protection alarm level 3: notice for citizen help in cases such as the abduction of minors. It is not activated by default and can be deactivated. In Spain it is not currently in use.
That is to say, The settings to activate/deactivate the alerts are for level 2 (Pre-Alerts), which are not currently in use in Spain.
The alert systems therefore no manual configuration required by the user. Even if the phone is silenced or in do not disturb mode, these alerts will still be received.
Unusual, but should not surprise us
At the time of writing these lines, several alerts for heavy rain have been received in the Barcelona area. The message, similar to that sent in other areas, explains that extreme caution must be taken during the next three hours.
From the mobile settings It is possible to see the history of emergency alerts that we have received. On Android we can access Security and Emergencies > Wireless emergency alerts > Emergency alert history. If we click, we will see both the message and the time we received it. In my case, we have received two alerts with a time difference of about 40 minutes.
Receive an alert should not be seen as something exceptional. In countries like Japan o USA It is common to have wireless alerts on your cell phone, from earthquake warnings to hurricane warnings, but also to warn of military maneuvers, chemical leaks or even kidnappings and police operations.
Civil Protection explains that receiving these alert messages “will be a rare occurrence”, although when we receive them we must “pay immediate attention.” An exceptional situation that we are experiencing these days and that has resulted in many citizens receiving these alerts for the first time.
In Xataka | The DANA alert that you received on your mobile phone is not an SMS nor does it use your number: this is how the ES-Alert emergency system works