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The Alert Warned That A Tsunami Was Heading For Florida. It Was Just Another Mixup.

Associated Press
A tsunami warning test was mistakenly sent out as a live alert early Tuesday.

Cell phones and social media went nuts early Monday after a routine monthly test message for tsunami warnings from the National Weather Service for Florida, the U.S. east coast and parts of the Caribbean got recirculated as an official alert.

The test went out about 8:30 a.m. Tuesday and was picked up by a private company that distributes alerts, said Rob Molleda, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service’s Miami office. The company then mistakenly recirculated the test as an official warning.

“We don’t know how it happened or where it originated,” he said. “The push notification did not come from the National Weather Service, so I can’t explain to you how it happened. That’s still something we’re trying to figure out.”

Read more at our news partner, the Miami Herald

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