[EAS] concerning the request for new weather Event Codes

[Botterell, Arthur@CalOES]

Clay, my concern is that the non-addressable nature of EAS makes the system all-but-unusable for local officials in local events.  This, I believe, is a lot of why we're finding it ever harder to mobilize local level support for EAS... it's just way too much of a blunt instrument to be used frequently.  How many local emergency managers would like to be the target of all the complaints NWS is receiving?

So I'm thinking that ultimately we need to choose one of two strategies:  Either accept that EAS is, by its nature, really only suitable for Presidential broadcasts and concentrate on other options for the very many warning opportunities that arise at smaller scale*; or make adjustments to EAS that recognize that geographic targeting is the sine-qua-non of modern public warning practice.

An incremental step in that direction would be to make local EAS interrupts a bit less disruptive and time-consuming.  A fundamental change would be to enable precise geographic targeting, at least to location-aware receivers.  We have the necessary input tool for that latter change in IPAWS, but it strikes me as unlikely that broadcasters have any appetite for another wholesale revamp of EAS.  Although if the current situation is actually as catastrophic as some broadcasters suggest, maybe they'd see another technology refresh as being worth it.

What do you think?

Art

* Last night's tragedy in Dallas presented several potential occasions for public alerting on a relatively limited geographic scale... E.g., a shelter-in-place in the immediate area, orderly evacuation instructions for that same immediate area, and an avoid-the-area message for a somewhat larger piece of the Metroplex.  But imagine the howls from news-oriented broadcasters had the Dallas PD repeatedly interrupted their coverage with a market-wide EAS!