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

[Botterell, Arthur@CalOES]

Sean asked " Should that be a problem? "

Shouldn't be, but not infrequently is.  In Contra Costa County (CA) a few years back we worked out a procedure whereby an IC could call dispatch and request an on-call "warning specialist" (trained in policy, procedure and the relevant social science) who would attach (usually just over the phone) to the Command as a Technical Specialist to handle the details.  All (!) we has to train the responders was that such a capability was available... generally speaking they were surprised and very pleased at the news.

Some jurisdictions, taking what I'd suggest is an excessively literal interpretation of SEMS/NIMS, assume that their PIOs will handle this.  Alas, few PIOs have had in-depth training in public warning... plus it's not automatic to assign a PIO to every incident, so by the time that slot gets filled it's usually too late for warning to be useful.

So no, the "reachback" doesn't have to be a problem, but very often folks on both sides of the equation haven't met, or at least haven't figured out how to work together at the speed of initial response.

Art