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I received an Amber Alert for a girl from Philadelphia a few months ago on this system (or a similar one). It was surreal being in a restaurant and hearing over a dozen phones go off almost simultaneously.

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I did not get an amber alert, and I am in Boston. Maybe due to the cell signal jamming to stop any additional detonations. I had to call family from Google Voice on my laptop to get in touch. Pretty crazy

Just to clarify, Amber Alerts are a specific type of these emergency alerts and are used for missing children.

I haven't heard about whether emergency SMS were sent out for the Boston bombings.

I received one in Pittsburgh for that alert for Philadelphia.

I think they got all of PA, MD, NJ and the DC area as it was close to 3 hours after the incident that they sent it out.

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