Imagine you're on Twitter and you see this pop up from the Harvey Cedars police department on L.B.I.

Might be rather startling, right? We all remember the terror of the Japanese tsunami of several years ago. Imagine reading that tweet and having those images rush your brain. This false tsunami warning didn't just go out on Harvey Cedar's Twitter, it also went out on their Nixle alert system.

None of it was real. There was no tsunami off the coast of L.B.I. or anywhere along the Jersey coast or even along the east coast of the United States.

The weather service office in New Jersey said the Tsunami Warning Center in Alaska conducted a routine test of its emergency alert system a bit after 1pm our time. This is done monthly to be sure communication lines are working properly. Unfortunately the test was taken as the real deal. An apology and explanation quickly followed.

Harvey Cedars Police Chief Robert Burnaford says they are working on a solution to prevent such a mistake from happening in the future.

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