Blount County officials say a civil alert to sent to phones across East Tennessee Saturday morning was a mistake. The alert was supposed to be a missing child alert, according to the Blount County Emergency Management Agency.
Officials were creating an Integrated Public Alert Warning System message after a 4-year-old boy was found running down Nobel Street in Alcoa, according to Lance Coleman, director of Blount County Emergency Management Agency. That alert was supposed to be an attempt to find the child's parents, Coleman said.
While emergency management officials were crafting the message, the software inadvertently sent a Civil Alert test weather message in place of the alert regarding the child and his parents.
After consulting with software engineers, officials issued disregard message 11:46 a.m., Coleman said.
Coleman says the management agency is working with engineers to determine the cause of the system malfunction. He also apologized for any inconvenience the alert may have caused.
"This is a great system that saves lives. The system is put in place for safety of this community to ensure we are doing everything we can to assure the citizen’s safety. We are researching the cause of what happened this morning and we are sorry for any inconvenience or alarm this caused," Coleman said.
