[EAS] Sandy & CAP

[Richard_Rudman]

I see Suzanne and Mike's point, but my earlier posting talked about reinforcing warnings from emergency management who have the primary responsibility it is to issue immediate action life safety messages like EVI (Evacuate Immediately). They were the people who told the Governor to say what he said about evacuations on the air. 

Suzanne rightly reminds us concerning Sandy that, "...we saw it coming from 2000 miles away." 

As far as Sandy is concerned, evacuation messages from Gov. Christy were aired well before communications  and power started to fold up. I still say that EAS evacuation messages from public officials that should also be issued -- along with social media, CMAS, and Reverse 911 -- and even sirens and smoke signals if all else fails.

Adrienne's comment:  [So tell me again why broadcasters had to buy CAP EAS equipment that no one
used in a multi-state, multi-agency, multi-billion dollar disaster? ] 

I can go into a long list of reasons to counter this argument, but for now: CAP opens up the potential for emergency management to provide better warnings that deliver more useful information to the public. That the emergency management community has not gotten there yet is unfortunate. Should we get there, and is it worthwhile to get there? 

I submit that it is.

Good and very useful discussion!

Richard

On Nov 1, 2012, at 2:00 PM, suzanne at mab.org wrote:

> I have to agree with Mike McCarthy's post (which arrived in my in-box two minutes before yours, Adrienne).