[EAS] Alerting in General

[Ed Czarnecki]

I'm not sure how much jurisdiction the various agencies have to "define" the
SECC beyond the EAS role.

A best of all worlds approach may be a carrot rather than a stick - i.e.
where funding is made available to help cover the cost of an expanded SECC,
operating to certain requirements.  Of course, this would take Congressional
funding ... maybe Suzanne Goucher is up for pushing a future version of the
IPAWS Authorization Act that would carve out additional funding to be made
available by DHS FEMA for the purposes of underwriting expanded SECC
activities.  Just kidding ... kind of ...

From: EAS [mailto:eas-bounces at radiolists.net] On Behalf Of Rod Zeigler

The one thing I see having a very bright light shone on it in the EAS State
Plan thread is the oft cursed ambiguity in the FCC EAS Rules and Regs.
SECC's are alluded to in the context of being the go-to authority in the
States for monitoring assignments. That is all.
What the various States do, or don't do, with regards to SECC's is totally
up to those States since there are no other guidelines.
FEMA has the authority to designate PEP stations, but the FCC has the
operating authority over those same stations.
FEMA IPAWS set up the Cap Aggregator for alerts which distributes, via
public internet, those alerts to various outlets. EAS and WEA being two
separate entities getting those alerts.
Alert dissemination via EAS and WEA is under the purview of the FCC. We have
a multi level interface between two different government agencies with two
different missions.
I am surprised it works as well as it does, and that is due to the dedicated
people in both agencies that want to make it work. I could be a nightmare,
but it isn't.
Alert origination is even more disparate than alert dissemination. 
Everything below a Federal level alert is left to the States to handle as
they see fit.
Alerting directly to the public (WEA) is in its infancy and alert
origination via this method is far from mature. It has the promise of being
a primary alerting source, but not quite yet.

We have various other agencies wanting a seat on the alerting bus, such as
the DoJ and Blue Alerts. These boutique alerts will grow as others discover
needs as yet unseen.

I have heard "Be careful what you wish for", but some kind of definition of
SECC's needs to be made at the Federal level to handle the Federal alerting
requirements. Further definition can be done at the State level to meet that
States needs, but a definitive foundation at the Federal level is paramount.

Alerting the public needs to be a subject of study by the Emergency
Management community just as they study sheltering displaced persons,
radiological monitoring, communications, and other areas they are
responsible for. Alerting, in all of its forms, must also become part of the
Incident Command System. Alerting has gone way beyond the days of the
tornado siren and with current and future technological advancement, will be
an evolving science for the foreseeable future.

--
R. V. Zeigler, Dir. of Eng.
Nebraska Rural Radio Assn.
Chairman, Ne. SECC
Exec. Dir, NEBA

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