[EAS] EAS and CMAS

[Clay Freinwald]

Tim - 

You bring up an excellent point -  

No one wants a flood of bogus, redundant and un-necessary EAS Messages.
This is just one of the reasons why States and Local Areas need - Active and
vibrant SECC's and LECC's.   It is via these organizations that the desired
fine-tuning takes place....eliminating the 'Bee problem'.

As for Tornado Warnings, and other events that -do- take lives.    Your
position is appreciated.   My concern is that not everyone feels the way you
do.    With the number of broadcast stations automated it's important that
their EAS units be properly programmed to respond and warn the public,
tragically, there are many that are not.

I am not sure where you got the idea....but I don't know any anyone that has
suggested that broadcast stations carry CMAS messages...What I have been
suggesting is that local broadcasters and EAS Committees closely monitor the
development of CMAS so that we are all working together.   We found out how
this can go wrong here in the Seattle area last month when NWS issued a
Blizzard Warning for a - particular forecast zone-  In this case, the
Cascade and Olympic Mountains.   The apparent CMAS procedure is to broadcast
this message, minus the specific location information, on all the cell sites
within the counties that contain those 'forecast zones'.    This caused
cellphones in downtown Seattle ( at Sea-Level ) to get Blizzard Warnings for
a location in the mountains 50 miles away.   The CMAS instruction to 'Check
Media' is vague at best - add to that the local Broadcast Media knew nothing
about CMAS.   I was called by a local TV Station (with a large news
department) wanting to know who was to blame for the fiasco..... That
certainly lit a fire under me (as everyone is finding out) 

Your idea of having one or more stations be the 'go to' station for
emergency information is a good one...(In this market we have several with
full time news operations) the question is how to instruct the cellphone
owner that just received the message where to get the follow up info.   This
is another area where there is a great deal of work to be done.
Broadcasters likely have no idea that CMAS is going to dump potentially
thousands of people on their door-step expecting information that is not
forth coming.   Due to a multitude of reasons, the CMAS message is unlikely
to instruct cellphone owners to tune to a specific frequency or call
letters.

Another good point was - how about those that are not familiar with the area
and are only traveling thru....Picture the person just getting off a plane
in Seattle, turning on their cellphone and getting a frightening emergency
message.

Thanks for your input - Keep it up

Clay Freinwald