Thousands of times per year, localized to the city or county level, mostly for weather (tornado, hurricane, etc.)
Millions of people in the Midwest hear it every year during tornado season.
Severe weather, earthquakes, child abduction in your local area
Our governor (ab)used the EAS system to announce COVID lockdowns.
The false Hawaii missile warning comes to mind too.
Somewhat interesting is that I don't think they were used on 9/11.
I don't know of anything in the relevant regulation that would prohibit a statewide EAS activation for a public health emergency.
Wireless Emergency Alerts use the same tones, but didn’t exist on 9/11. EAS did exist, but the alerts are supposed to include the protective action to be taken. What protective action would you have recommended the public take? And since broadcast news widely covered the attacks, what contribution would an EAS alert make?
Other comments links to video of when it was first introduced and tested. It's from November 2011
No, EAS was rolled out in 1997, and it replaced the very similar EBS which was from the 60s. 2011 is just the first time they actually attempted a nationwide alert, which was always a capability but had never been used to that point.