Emergency alert systems have blasted a cryptic alert to mobile phones around the capital of the US state of Oregon, panicking residents by telling them simply "Civil Emergency" and "Prepare for Action" and omitting that the threat was toxic algae at a local water supply.
Officials wanted to warn Salem-area residents on Tuesday night that elevated levels of a natural toxin caused by the algae bloom had made area tap water unsafe for children and people with compromised immune systems.
However, that information was cut off and a more ominous-sounding default message went out in its place, said Andrew Phelps, the head of the state emergency management agency.
"I apologise for the confusion and the anxiety this incomplete message has caused," he said.
Officials sent a second message 31 minutes later with more information and a link to a municipal website.
Within hours of the first alert, residents stripped the aisles at one supermarket in the city's downtown centre of bottled water.
The incident marked a high-profile glitch in authorities' use of emergency alert systems, following a false alarm sent out by Hawaii officials in January warning of an incoming ballistic missile.In Oregon, confusion surrounded the initial alert even within the emergency management agency, with an official telling reporters the message had caught them unaware and state police asking residents via a Facebook post not to call 911 about the alert.
And when officials directed residents to the city of Salem's municipal website for more information, the site briefly crashed under the load.
