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

[Botterell, Arthur@CalOES]

Adrienne asked:

> What's the coverage for NOAA Weather Radio in the warning area? It looks pretty spotty on the NOAA Weather
> Radio map, so there may have been local radio stations which would have carried the FFW, if they received it. Ditto 
>for people with NOAA Weather Radios. 

All of this was down on the valley floor, where there's strong  and redundant NOAA radio coverage.

>And will the thousands of people who evacuated their homes be as ready and willing to go again if the situation repeats 
>after the next series of storms? 

So far next series doesn't look as troublesome as the last one, but everyone's on guard.  The answer to your question is hard to know, but as a rule "cry wolf" isn't nearly the issue its made out to be.  What really desensitizes folks is irrelevant alerts, ones that don't reasonably apply to them.  Of course some folks may rationalize that the lack of a flood last time means they're immune.  We just hope that doesn't become self-correcting!

Obviously it's in no one's interest to do this sort of thing frivolously.  And we can expect the usual post-event round of finger-pointing.  I expect the Sheriff of Butte County was well aware of that when he made the hard decision.

(BTW, ever notice how little difference there is between finger-pointing and finger-painting?)