[EAS] CMAS

[Richard_Rudman]

Hello, Robert:

Thank you very much for participating in the EAS Forum. We know that you and your NWS colleagues are constantly working to improve all warnings issued by NWS. Unfortunately there seems to be a striking parallel in how emergency, warning and alerting technologies came into being. Going back to the evolution of basic 9-1-1, it is my impression that the telecommunications industry told the public safety community what the product would look like rather than the reverse. It has taken decades to try to overcome some 9-1-1 technical limitations that were "baked in" when the program was launched. 

CMAS, also an initiative of the telecommunications industry, seems to not only have taken the same path, but was launched before public and private sector training, education and coordination to integrate it with other warning systems could be worked out. We are all now seeing the results of that lack of planning.

The Partnership for Public Warning (PPW) identified key needs in its reports to FEMA, the FCC and NWS. The Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) came into being based on what the PPW did. Unfortunately, the key finding of the PPW has not yet been acted on. There is still no overall warning strategy for the United States. Yes, FEMA has come up with IPAWS, a good first step to integrate warning systems, but an overall public warning strategy and roadmap is still very much a work in progress.

The Broadcast Warning Working Group, the host of the EAS Forum, hopes NWS and the other Federal warning partners will work toward a a public/private partnership  that can, among other things, build a coordination model so all public warnings systems can work together to do what we all want -- deliver timely protective action information to a public very much at risk in time to save more lives and property.

Richard Rudman
Core Member, the BWWG

On Jan 15, 2013, at 4:48 AM, Robert Bunge - NOAA Federal wrote:

> The CMAS technology doesn't allow us to embed a link.  This is an interesting learning experience.