[EAS] Sandy & CAP

[Alex Hartman]

Okay, i'll buy that for the NWS side, how about the aftermath? Why
haven't we heard about many activations such as civil messages
(emergencies, notices, etc) being issued? IE, don't go to X area of
town for risk of being killed? That'd be a "do it now" situation.
(Rather a "don't do it now" situation)

When you rely on TV and heresay from the reporters and news
departments point of view, people take it as gospel and do such. If
they give out incorrect information, well, oops?

In situations like this where there's no "official" word on what
people should do, the inmates run the information asylum and can cause
other problems IMO, making the professional peoples jobs that much
harder.

Now, i will say that also in natural disasters, no matter the
location, human nature kicks in with survival. It often times brings
out the best in people who want nothing more than to help out people
who've been devastated. The information given via radio, TV, etc is
just that, and people will use that to go where help is needed most.
Happens all the time around here, especially spring flooding. People
will just show up ready to fill sandbags around the hospital and such,
bringing boats, generators, shovels, anything to get things going.

To that same end, when people just show up because they see it on TV,
they don't know the area, and they don't know where NOT to go when
they get there, causing again, another problem.

Without these warnings, notices, etc, it can create a very chaotic situation.

IMO, i see this as money left on the table. TV, Radio, etc had a
really good chance to shine here with information for the masses,
while TV did what they do best (going into areas where they really
shouldn't be and doing live reports), radio just read the information
and it was business as usual. Plugging CNN or Fox TV audio into your
station does several dis-services to your credibility IMO (not to
mention contractual violations). When i saw several reports on CNN of
official interviews with FEMA, city halls, mayors, etc, they all said
"turn on a battery powered radio"... yet radio really wasn't there.

--
Alex Hartman

On Thu, Nov 1, 2012 at 3:01 PM, Mike McCarthy <towers at mre.com> wrote:
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> The NHC was very explict about ***not*** issuing any land based tropical
> warnings for Sandy north of Virginia/Chesapeake Sound as it approached
> land. The off shore tropical warning products up to the Canadian Border
> ended 5 miles off shore (but went out to 200 miles as the storm was
> considered tropical until landfall). The near shore (0-5 miles) is where
> the local WFO took over and issued their local office products.
>
> More to that reasoning, the tropical storm was forecast to go extropical
> immediately upon landfall as colder air from the phasing land trough and
> jet stream was ingested. When that occurs, tropical products are no longer
> considered technically accurate and watch/warning message issuance reverts
> to the local WFO. Further to that point, the NHC stated they didn't want
> to issue land tropical warning products only to see them rescinded when
> the storm went extropical. They explictily stated that so as to avoid
> confusing the public. Made perfect sense.
>
> To which I saw considerable collaboration on what products were issued by
> the various WFO's so as to limit confusion. I think that plan well handled
> the total storm event.
>
> To that end, I also believe EAS was appropriately not used. The storm was
> well predicted and hazards widely disseminated days in adavance. EAS is
> for the short fuse "Do it now!!!" message which doesn't have a lead time
> to otherwise disseminate through news channels.
>
> MM
>
>> I'm surprised by this really. Did the NWS issue a hurricane warning,
>> flooding advisory, high wind advisory, etc?
>> --
>> Alex Hartman
>