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NEW YORK: False tsunami warnings flashed on cellphones along the U.S. East and Gulf Coasts early on Tuesday morning when a U.S. National Weather Service (NWS) systems test went awry, unnerving Americans from Maine to Texas.
The false alerts appeared to have been sent out by the private forecasting company AccuWeather, according to cellphone images posted on social media. AccuWeather pointed the finger at the NWS.
The NWS and the Federal Communications Commission said they were investigating.
"Yikes!" Trish Milburn, a writer of romance novels who lives on Florida's Gulf Coast, wrote on Twitter. "That warning is not what you want to see when you live less than 10 feet above sea level."
It was not the first time this year Americans were roused by their cellphones warning of an impending catastrophe. Last month's false alarm was a missile headed for Hawaii.
The National Weather Service said its National Tsunami Warning Center had issued a routine monthly test message that had been misconstrued, spooking people in cities as far apart as Boston and Houston.
"The test message was released by at least one private sector company as an official Tsunami Warning, resulting in widespread reports of tsunami warnings received via phones and other media across the East Coast, Gulf of Mexico, and the Caribbean," the service said in a statement.
At least some people who clicked the alert to read the full message saw a disclaimer saying the alert was in fact a test, according to screenshots posted online.
AccuWeather said the National Weather Service had wrongly coded the test as a real warning, confusing its automated alerts system.
"AccuWeather has the most sophisticated system for passing on NWS tsunami warnings based on a complete computer scan of the codes used by the NWS," the company said in a statement. "While the words 'TEST' were in the header, the actual codes read by computers used coding for real warning, indicating it was a real warning."
AccuWeather said it had warned the National Weather Service in 2014 of this vulnerability after a similar error.
The National Weather Service did not respond to questions about AccuWeather's assertion.
It was not clear how many people saw the false alerts.
Last month, the state of Hawaii mistakenly warned residents of an inbound missile, sparking panic. The message was later blamed on an error by an employee, who was subsequently fired.
Last month, residents of the West Coast were warned to brace for a possible tsunami after an earthquake off the coast of Alaska. The warnings were later lifted and no significant damage was reported.