[EAS] EAS monitoring sources

[Sean Donelan]

On Wed, 31 Aug 2016, Mike McCarthy wrote:
> When I refer to "send", the time and effort needed to craft the message
> and it's content as well as the decision to release...or "send" is
> included. All that gets mixed into the overall scenario decision
> structure. It is an easy no-go if the EAS send efforts would be wasted and
> time better spent on other pressing public distribution tasks.

The National Weather Service is a counter-example for most of that.  It
was not simple, and its taken NWS decades of work and lots of resources.

NWS meteorologists very quickly prepare and distribute warnings for 
breaking events through multiple channels.  They also work closely with
media meteorologists at local radio and tv stations. Most warnings and 
alert messages are pre-scripted, and can be quickly populated by both 
automation and by the meteorologist through mass distribution channels. 
They don't call news outlets, one by one.

NWS has also pushed much of the warning and decision making down to the 
local level, it doesn't require approvals from many layers of management 
to issue a public warning.  But there is a lot of training and directives 
that cover when and how NWS meteorologists issue weather alerts.

Only a few local media outlets would be able to cover local weather events 
on their own, as quickly, without assistance from NWS. Yes, most TV 
stations now have a "weather camera" on a tower or the top of their 
building pointed at the sky.  Some news radio stations used to have a 
"private wire" to the local WFO, but they mostly cancelled that to save 
money.

In tornado alley, there are a few media meteorologists on local radio and 
TV which have being doing it for decades, and a probably among the top 
experts on tornadoes in the country. There a a couple of private weather 
companies which have been lobbying congress for years to cut NWS budget 
because NWS "competes" with with private industry.

Nixle, CodeRED and other companies are selling alert systems to local 
emergency managers.  Most of the systems can interface with CAP and even
local radio EAS systems, as well as sending alerts via e-mail, SMS, etc.

Essentially all local EMA, dispatch, police and municiple governments have 
radio licenses for one or more public safety frequencies.  Unlike Part 97, 
there are no license problems with local EMA's using public safety 
frequencies to distribute warnings and alerts to the news media.  Media
outlets can get public safety band receivers and plug them into their EAS.

But its not that simple.