[EAS] FCC Seeks Comment on Multilingual EAS

[Mike McCarthy]

I'm going to jump into this as I am aware first hand of how 
"UN-announced" flash floods can be and how language agnostic they 
are.There are some short fuse call to action events which need every 
means possible to spread the word. Flash flooding is one of them. 
Particularly overnight when heavy rains can quietly occur and stack up a 
great deal of water without disrupting the sleep of folks in well 
insulated buildings.

Consider being along a gently flowing waterway during a light rain.  
However, the waterway then turns to a raging torrent from a heavy rain 
event just a few miles up stream.  This is true of an event which killed 
30 campers overnight along a river in Arkansas a couple years ago.

Or...ice jams.  Ice jams can create flash floods in minutes without any 
type of warning. The Kanakakee river here is notorious for ice jams and 
flooding during the spring thaw.

How is flooding really predictable other than using rainfall estimation 
by radar and reports from the public/spotters. And even then, the 
radar's accuracy is dependent on it's distance from the event as well as 
terrain shielding in mountainous areas.And if folks are sleeping, the 
public's reporting will be lacking as well.  All of the above tools 
other than spotters are irrelveant with ice jams.

I agree that many event codes in EAS is merely CYA.  But I consider 
short fuse call-to-action messages for any life threatening event 
occurring or will in the next 30 minutes to warrant use of "any means 
possible" message distribution.  EAS is a tool in that tools chest...

The above comments not withstanding, the multi-lingual aspect is a 
complicated politically charged element where the proverbial camels nose 
aspect will extend farther and wider than anyone will ever consider and 
be prepared to address.  MMTC, et al. hasn't a clue about the real world 
effects which will be brought on by their pressing the matter.

MM

On 3/14/2014 11:06 PM, Robertm wrote:
> There are many self announcing events but floods and flash floods are almost always predictable. Broadcast handles that very well without EAS overhead.
>