Purpose[edit]
"The system was established to provide the President of the United States with an expeditious method of communicating with the American public in the event of war, threat of war, or grave national crisis."[1] The Emergency Broadcast System replaced CONELRAD on August 5, 1963.[2] In later years, it was expanded for use during peacetime emergencies at the state and local levels.[1]
Although the system was never used for a national emergency, it was activated more than 20,000 times[citation needed] between 1976 and 1996 to broadcast civil emergency messages and warnings of severe weather hazards.