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

[Sean Donelan]

On Wed, 15 Feb 2017, Alan Alsobrook wrote:
> If the NWS issued a FFW did that not trigger EAS? It would have for any boxes 
> I programed.

According to news reports, only one broadcaster relayed the FFW via 
EAS from Weather Radio.  While there is no national data how EAS 
participants actually configure their EAS equipment to relay which types 
of alerts, anedoctally very few EAS participants still relay FFW 
messages.

As an example, of 50 or so broadcast radio and TV stations around 
Washington DC, I'd estimate less than 5 relay Flash Flood Warning EAS 
messages based on over-the-air monitoring.  About 10 stations carry 
weather alerts as non-EAS graphic crawls on TV or breaking news on radio.

For the Oroville Dam evactuation, several local radio and TV stations did 
break into afternoon programming with special reports and some switched 
to breaking news mode.  I haven't heard any reports about cable systems in 
the area.