The Vermont Department of Public Safety will conduct an exercise of the Vermont Blue Alert System on Wednesday, Oct. 23, between 1:30 and 2:30 p.m.

The exercise will test the functionality of various components of Vermont's Blue Alert system. Specifically, the VT-Alert system will send messages to the thousands of subscribers, the Vermont Agency of Transportation message boards will be populated with exercise information, and VT Lottery will activate its system to message its signs, tickets, and kiosks. The Emergency Alert System (EAS) will also be utilized to send test messages to TV and radio stations. As in the past, the Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) will not be utilized.

Note that during this exercise, phone alerts will only occur for those who have signed up for VT-Alert. Anyone who wishes to receive AMBER Alerts and Blue Alerts in the future, including the latest up-to-date information at the time of the alert, can register for a free account by going to the VT-Alert website: https://vem.vermont.gov/vtalert, or by signing up here: https://member.everbridge.net/index/453003085617457#/signup.

For more questions about the exercise contact Ronald LaFond, director of the Vermont Intelligence Center, at [email protected]