[EAS] More questions for the list...

[Richard Rudman]

Hi, Bill:

I'd like to comment on a few items in your posting to this new list.

First, Clay's outline of how well things are working out so far in Washington State is a testament to years of hard work by that state's emergency managers and broadcasters.

We got off to a good start in California, but progress all but stopped at both the state and local levels due to personnel changes and budget problems. As you know from the EAS talk I gave at Chapter 40 a few months ago, Contra Costa County is our State's leading CAP poster child -- largely due to efforts by Art Botterell. The word is that the contract for CAP development for California's statewide EDIS system will be renewed this year. That will help all parts of California to leverage themselves into the CAP-EAS world if that is true.

Other states, especially in the Northeast, have working systems, and a reasonably tight linkage between those state's emergency management agencies. Go elsewhere in the country and you will find a wide range of CAP capability, emergency management dedication, and broadcast and cable entry point buy-in from "none" to "quite good".  

As far as your comments on all emergencies being local, I think you heard me say that at the Chapter 40 meeting. Not original, but very accurate. This is one of the rare times I disagree with Clay in that EDIS and some other CAP-capable systems have the capability to securely let properly registered emergency managers originate CAP messages from an incident if the need arises.

The way the whole CAP picture unfolds in California and nationwide for emergency management and broadcast and cable entry points badly needs "carrots". There is some serious talk about linking training funds and maybe equipment grants to the process. There is also a proposal to make CAP compliance part of the training offered under the National Incident Management System (NIMS). There are precedents that those emergency management agencies that will comply with NIMS and take NIMS training will be more likely to be reimbursed for actual emergency times. Eliminating RWT's is a small doable carrot. There are others.

As far as getting the LECC's re-ivigorated so new plans can be written, the FCC has and will be told that this is a different world than it was in 1996 when we did this for the EAS launch. I have to admit that what comes out of this awareness and translates into action that will make a difference is not certain. One thing I have and will propose is that CAP compliance in any given LECC and state would not go into effect until the local plan is re-written and approved at all levels.

All that being said, I want to remind you of something else I said at the Chapter 40 meeting:

"At the end of this process, we will find out if government is serious about improving public warnings, or not." If government gets serious about this and some tempering of the EAS mandate is done to ease compliance issues, broadcasters and cable systems might change their attitudes. Right now, I am not betting either way.

Richard Rudman 
CA SECC Vice Chair


On Jan 24, 2011, at 8:02 PM, Bill Ruck wrote:

> Some answers to Richard's questions
> 
> We all know that disasters are predominately LOCAL.  And there is no 
> carrot or stick to encourage local participation in any form of 
> EAS.  Hasn't been in the past and I see none in the future.
>