[EAS] Oroville Dam Evacuation...oh that was close

[Botterell, Arthur@CalOES]

Mike asked, "Was EAS left out because those in power feel it's a weak link to the public?"

Let's consider the alternatives that many emergency managers seem to prefer.  The big winners over the past decade or so have been mass telephone notification systems and assorted "social media" applications.  Phone-based systems can be targeted to particular areas and can serve a promotional purpose when branded under a catchy local name.  Twitter represents the user as with-it and engaged, and is useful for continual self-presentation.  And both produce statistics that can be used as proxy indicators of effectiveness.

EAS, viewed for the moment as a competing product, offers them none of those benefits.  And, for reasons we understand but that they really don't care about, EAS shows few if any signs of self-improvement.

Indeed, I fear some of them might say, "Yeah, well, we just moved over 180 thousand folks without using EAS, so what's your point?"

Art