Emergency alert system

At 2:20 p.m. ET on Wednesday, the federal government will be testing two emergency alert systems on televisions, radios and certain cellphones across the country.

A public hospital in Los Angeles gets over 1,000 unidentified patients a year. Most are quickly ID'd, but some require considerable gumshoe work — a task often complicated by medical privacy laws.

After three hurricanes, a big snow storm and an ice storm, residents and staff of a retirement community in Charleston are starting to view evacuations as the reality of growing old on the coast.

Texts stating "Presidential Alert" will be sent to some 225 million U.S. cellphones at 2:18 p.m. ET.

Dealing with a fire or other natural disaster is hard on anyone, from evacuation to aftermath. And people with physical or developmental disabilities have particular needs, say emergency planners.

Created in 2015, Blue Alerts are similar to Amber Alerts, but aim to catch people who threaten or harm police officers. The DOJ asked the FCC to add a special code to the broadcast emergency system.

Regulators have voted to expand cellphone alerts to 360 characters from the previous cutoff at 90 and to begin including clickable URLs and phone numbers over the next year or so. But no photos yet.

"WANTED," blared New York's alert. "Ahmad Khan Rahami, 28-year-old male." This year, nonfederal authorities have sent as many wireless emergency alerts as in the previous three years put together.