Peninsula Daily News and news services
PORT ANGELES — Middle-of-the-night annoyance or lifesaver?
That was what residents from Southern California to the North Olympic Peninsula were debating when millions of cellphones erupted in screeching, buzzing mayhem last week that many didn’t know their devices were capable of.
The Amber Alert — a suspected child abduction — on their cellphones was a replay of what New Yorkers, Georgians and others across the country have experienced this year.
Amber Alerts started going to cellphones in January, part of a broader Wireless Emergency Alert System that can also send imminent-threat alerts for natural and man-made disasters, and alerts from the president.
A cellphone user can opt out of the first two but not presidential alerts.
Ninety-eight percent of cellphone owners are signed up for the alerts — even if they don’t know it.
Most newer cellphones are automatically set up to receive them.
This entire report plus another on the topic appear exclusively in a special business section report in today’s print editions of the Peninsula Daily News, on sale at about 200 locations across the North Olympic Peninsula.