“A civil authority has issued a civil emergency message for the following counties/areas: Fairfield CT, Nassau NY, Suffolk NY, Suffolk NY, New Haven CT, Middlesex CT, New London CT, Suffolk NY, Suffolk NY, Fairfield CT, New Haven CT, Middlesex CT, and New London CT at 8:45 AM on Jul 12, 2006 effective until 2:45 PM.”

This is your federal government’s Emergency Alert System in action.

The tristate area suffered severe thunderstorms and tornadoes Wednesday afternoon, prompting the National Weather Service to issue warnings and alerts that morning.

One of them was for a boat missing on Long Island Sound, and that alert was mistakenly forwarded to the Emergency Alert System. From there it somehow turned into a “civil emergency” and ran on local radio and television stations, without any detail as to the nature of the supposed emergency.

“It was a technical glitch, we believe it was a software glitch,” said David Wally, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Upton, N.Y. “Proper procedure appeared to be followed here by the staff. It was supposed to be transmitted only over NOAA radio.”

Nevertheless, the cryptic warning generated many calls to television stations and state emergency officials, according to WTNH-TV.

Deputy Commissioner of Homeland Security Wayne Sandford says, “If there were a real emergency there would be more information, valuable information for the general public. Actions that they should take to protect themselves and their family.” — WTNH

The Department of Homeland Security is rolling out new technology which promises to deliver mistakes to anyone who wants to receive them in their e-mail or wireless phones — eventually.

“While I’m all in favor of expanding the range of the EAS to cover digital devices,” asks homeland security strategist W. David Stephenson, “why don’t we get the current system down pat before compounding the problem?”

In February 2005, a human error resulted in a mistaken emergency message which said that authorities had ordered the entire state of Connecticut to be evacuated.

“At the time, that was actually the default message in the system and you had to choose a different one, not to send out the default message,” Sandford said. “That has been changed.”

“The problem is at the input,” says emergency communications expert Art Botterell. “This new delivery technology, and the heightened public expectations it will foster, will mean hightened demands on public officials and private-sector entities to issue precise and specific warnings in time to make a difference.”

And the missing boat? It heard the message on weather radio and called the Coast Guard reporting it was just fine, according to WVIT-TV.

(Hat tip)