Emergency drill in the Barcelona area: five million phones will ring on Monday

BarcelonaOn Monday at 10:00 AM, the phones of more than five million people will ring simultaneously. The Catalan Civil Protection Agency will send a mass alert as part of an emergency drill to all mobile phones with coverage connected to antennas in the Barcelonès, Baix Llobregat, Maresme, Vallès Oriental, and Vallès Occidental regions. This means it will affect everyone in this area, including those passing through on the road or using public transport at the time of activation.

The message that will appear on screens will be: "Civil Protection alert drill of the Government of Catalonia. In a real emergency, you would receive instructions on how to protect yourself." The text will be sent in Catalan, Spanish, and English and will be accompanied by the distinctive, loud ES-Alert warning sound. The aim is to verify that this alert system functions correctly and that, in the event of a real emergency, catastrophe, or serious accident, the channel allows for immediate instructions to be given to the public. Civil Protection emphasizes that the alert that will sound is a drill and, therefore, citizens who receive it should not call 112 or anything else. However, they will make the following information available to the public: an online survey where you can anonymously indicate whether the alert was received correctly, in what language, and with which telephone company, in order to evaluate its performance.

Activate alert reception

The ES-Alert system is only used for drills—to familiarize the public with the tool—and when there is an imminent danger to human life. The message content varies depending on whether there is a fire nearby requiring shelter in place, if heavy rain is forecast and outdoor activities are discouraged, or if there has been an accident that could cause a chemical cloud, among other things. This state system—the Generalitat (Catalan government) has no authority to make changes—sends pop-up messages to all mobile phones within a specific antenna coverage area. "It's a delivery system that gives us broad coverage quickly. One of our functions is to warn the public about risks that may affect them, and in a serious emergency, it has proven its usefulness in delivering our warnings, orders, and recommendations," the Director of Civil Protection for the Generalitat recently stated. The alerts are received on all devices running Android 11 or higher or iOS 15.6 or higher. To activate reception, you need to open your phone's settings and select the folder of NotificationsIn the list of actions, you must select the option Wireless emergency alerts and enable them by clicking on Allow alertsIt's also possible that your phone already has a direct option (ES-Alert, Civil Protection alerts) in the Notifications folder. In these cases, simply make sure the tab is enabled.