[EAS] Source of the "scary" text in Suffolk Co

[Adrienne Abbott]

My list is shorter:  Having EAS available for local use at no cost sucks all
the air out of the room, as local EMs are hard pressed to justify spending
local dollars to replace something they get from the feds for free.  That so
many have nonetheless managed to scrape up money for telephone notification
systems says something about how unsuitable the current EAS is for the local
alerting mission.
Art
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It's not that simple Art...states and counties have spent lots of money on
various public warning systems without really knowing what they're getting.
I don't want to say that some vendors are unscrupulous, but I've heard
multiple stories now from both Nevada and California local officials who say
they've just found out they have a CAP product, in some cases, multiple
products, that they didn't know they had, that no supervisor had told them
they had, what it was good for and how they would learn to use it. Someone
sold administrators, supervisors or elected officials a "whiz-bang" product
that they promised would do everything but put out the cat at night and the
information never got to the in-the-trenches staff, the First Responders,
dispatchers and shift commanders who really need to use this stuff. It's
incredibly frustrating. 
Adrienne 

Adrienne Abbott
Nevada EAS Chair
NVBA  ABIP  Inspector