[EAS] False EAS Test Startles Guam Residents

[Clay Freinwald]

Sean - 

There are some huge differences here - 

> Broadcast station personnel are never asked for their experience with
initiating public warning messages
> They are not trained in how to perform the task.
> Broadcasters generally are very apprehensive about initiating these
warnings due to obvious liability issues.
> A great number of broadcast operations are un-manned or are central cast
from out of state.
> Broadcast stations are not the source of emergency information anyway.
> Broadcast facilities are simply conduit mechanisms between the source of
the information (likely EMA's or PSAPS) and the general public
> Broadcast facilities are very poor choices for message origination as they
can, without any notice, decline to participate leaving a system
in-operative.

Trust me, we have discussed this issue - in significant detail - here in
Washington State for the last 20+ years and feel our position is very sound.

With that being said - I completely agree with the following - 

Is there train-the-trainer material how to teach alert originators, and
showing trainers how to set up the system for training?

Thankfully, in our state, CAP based systems (our own or FEMA/IPAWS) have
'front end' systems that make message origination a whole lot easier.
The issue here is that Public Warning -MUST- be a part of the training
routine for all entities that are task with this responsibility.     

Clay Freinwald

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