[EAS] Oroville Dame Evacuation

[Mike McCarthy]

I do agree that being in rural areas concentrates the pool of known beings
into a well knowing group of local respondents. Never assume that will
always be the case however. Badges and credentials come into the picture
when unfamiliars enter an event.

It is better to confirm than to assume. Your friendly deputy might not be
the one stationed on the road leading to your TX or studios during an
emergency. It could be a M-16 carrying national guardsman who will very
assuredly say, "No access past this point and what part of NO ACCESS do
you not understand?".

Let me re-state an important element to the first informer program. The
primary purpose is to restore or sustain operations following the event's
occurrence when the initial hazard has passed, but conditions remain
unsafe for the general public. If the TX and/or studio site remain in
harms way, one needs to carefully prioritize their mission....including
the simple fact of staying alive and uninjured. Engineers are quite
valuable alive...less so when they're injured or worse. More over, their
potentially self-created crisis will draw others away from their missions
in order to be rescued.  Not good...

Some states, including Illinois, have adopted using FEMA's incident
management and situational awareness classes as a prerequisite to
obtaining the first informer credential. It's a starting point... But
state issued credentials following training will go a lot father...much as
FEMA has issued federal first informer credentials to PEP station
engineers.

MM

On Tue, February 14, 2017 8:27 pm, Richard Dillman wrote:
>
> One of the advantages of being at a rural station is being on a first
> name basis with the first responders.  So badges are not needed and
> access is not a problem.
>
> RD