[EAS] Voluntary Local EAS Carriage: Can We All Take Two Steps Forward?

[Sean Donelan]

On Wed, 15 Feb 2012, Richard_Rudman wrote:
> The core message about probability and risk assessment I was trying to 
> communicate is probably more familiar to the EM community is than to us.

In the article the examples about not using EAS during coverage of 
Hurricane Ike or the Shuttle Columbia are events where news broadcasters 
were already covering the event. What additional information would EAS 
give the public that news broadcasters weren't already reporting? If 
emergency managers had use EAS during either of those events, its 
just as likely that reporters would have asked instead why EAS was used 
instead of calling a news conference?

Dog bites man -- not news.

Man bites dog -- news.

Rare and unexpected are the missing words.

I suggest not using CEM as a rare, unexpected event code.  CEM is already 
widely used in many EAS plans as the general, all purpose event code.  A
rarely used code such as CDW is still generic, but may be better to 
distinguish the rare, unexpected emergency warning for which every mass 
communication channel should agree to quickly interrupt programming.  CEM 
can still be used for "normal" emergencies in a CAPwire world.

EAS operational areas are usually relatively large, multi-jurisdictional 
areas.  No matter how small you make the polygon in the CAP messsage, the
radio, television, satellite, etc transmitter is still going to interrupt
programming in its entire reception area. For these messages to be well
received by the audience, it will need to be relevant to a large part
of the audience in the entire EAS operational area.