Even if you knew it was coming, the emergency test alert conducted Wednesday afternoon was an alarming experience, the Alert Ready system bringing a jarring siren-like sound to mobile devices, televisions and radios nationwide.

Designed to cut through the mix of everyday activities, the National Public Alerting System is loud. Very loud. And this zero-to-100 jolt out of the typical weekday routine had people across Canada reacting in all sorts of ways.

Ontario when the emergency alert test came on pic.twitter.com/0kgHXPBjSG

— Rachel✨💅🏻 (@Rachmua21) November 17, 2021

Meetings were interrupted, coffee was likely spilled, and an entire nation's concentration was abruptly broken, albeit just for a few seconds.

no one:
literally nobody:
not a single soul:

Ontario Emergency Alert at full blast while I'm sitting in dead silence focusing on work: pic.twitter.com/0KqW8LdGVR

— (͡ ͡° ͜ つ ͡͡°) Tiny Stomper 🇨🇦🍁 (@PattoArts) November 17, 2021

Despite media coverage and social media posts from officials warning of the test, some people apparently did not get the memo, caught off guard by the apocalyptic shrieks emanating from their television screens and mobile devices.

Was there a warning issued before the Ontario emergency alert system decides to do test runs? My heart is racing. I just woke up. pic.twitter.com/zUU6lO7juk

— Dr Prital Patel (@prital_) November 17, 2021

What's worse than waking up to the piercing alert siren? How about nearly losing control on the road scrambling for the volume dial.

Bro getting an emergency alert while ur driving blasting Juice as loud as possible is the most scariest and annoying thing ever. It wouldn’t stop goin off and I couldn’t reach my phone 😭

— Times⁹⁹⁹ Needs Psychedelics💜⚰️💉 (@TimesWRLD999) November 17, 2021

Some fringe groups, mainly right-wing conspiracy theorists, are reading a bit too far into the tests — scheduled to occur twice a year, including the third Wednesday each November.

Lockdowns

— 🇨🇦Canada First🇨🇦 Rick #VotePPC (@rickcanada10) November 17, 2021

And on the other side of the political spectrum, some fine trolling:

Oh, see, I thought this was going to say Emergency Alert: Never Go To Shoppers Drug Mart Again Because That's Where The Ontario Government Wants to Start Sending People With COVID Symptoms. pic.twitter.com/sugoUbk5wE

— Simon Houpt (@simonhoupt) November 17, 2021

Others suffered from technical glitches, with one report of multiple alerts being sent out to the same device.

When these emergency alerts go off, I get dups. 4 this time. My guess is it’s related to eSim & cellular watches. I have 2 sims & 3 watches.

Each sim received the alert & duplicated it for the active watch = 4 copies. Or each sim & watch received the alert, so I’m 1 short? pic.twitter.com/x3Txgd79gq

— Dave Wood 🇨🇦 (@DaveWoodX) November 17, 2021

In contrast to too many notifications, one commenter got their test warning 20 minutes after the scheduled time (Ontario's test occurred at 12:55 p.m. but tests happened at other times in different provinces and territories).

My emergency alert was 20 minutes late and didn't come with an audio signal.

I guess I'll be blissfully unaware when the apocalypse happens.

— Vanessa 🇨🇦 (@VSC0123) November 17, 2021

And while people love to whine about the brief inconveniences of noise from their phones, some going as far as to call the police to complain about being woken up, it's imperative to keep this system functioning smoothly.

*November 17th, 2021 @ 12:55 pm ET in Ontario*

Emergency Alert: Wooo-wooo-wooo, this is a test.

Donny Don't: I'm so mad 🤬 *dials 911*

Hey Ontario, when they test the emergency alert today, don't do what Donny Don't does#Feck pic.twitter.com/TA0kwpfPaz

— Todd Bee (@Toddalio) November 17, 2021

There have been 71 emergency alerts in Ontario this year, with seven civil emergency warnings, six Amber Alerts and 58 tornado warnings.