[EAS] Bringing the emergency management community closer to EAS

[Richard_Rudman]

Greetings:

As we all know EAS does not yet have the kind of support we need from the emergency management community in all parts of the country. Success stories where such support exists usually hinge on both sides going half way (or more) to make it happen. Yes, Governor Mandatory can help in states where governors act, but more needs to be done. This issue has been with us during the life of EAS and most everyone agrees that this situation needs to be changed.

During NAB we heard from FEMA that they intend to roll out training and outreach to the emergency management community. It has been suggested to them that they tie EAS training into the National Incident Management System (NIMS) program. The neat thing about NIMS is that state and local emergency management agencies get reimbursement if they take NIMS training. So, there's some hope that a tie-in with NIMS will help bridge the gap between EAS entry points and warning originators. 

This last week I had the opportunity to make a presentation on CAP-EAS issues to the president of my state's organization for professional emergency managers, the California Emergency Management Association (CESA). I explained to the CESA president something else we all know -- that there is nothing in Part 11 that can bring local or state emergency management communities into the process. Out of that meeting came a promise from him to have the California SECC make a presentation at the annual CESA state convention in the fall.

I would like to suggest that if your state and/or local area's emergency management community has not supported your EAS efforts the way you want and need the m to, you try to reach out to them as best you can. The best goal as I see it is to have them take responsibility for warnings -- including taking a leadership position in running LECC's and SECC's. We are past the point where EAS is an activity run by engineering departments.

If anyone on the list has examples of what has worked, please post them for all of us to see. 

Richard Rudman
Vice Chair, CA SECC