[EAS] FCC BLU Alert Proposal

[Botterell, Arthur@CalOES]

Excellent point, Sean.

Contra Costa County, CA is across the bay from SF and hosts four of the five area oil refineries (and the whole complex petrochemical ecosystem that springs up around a refinery.)  The refineries (mostly) fund a Community Warning System that's been quite successful over a number of years.  (Disclosure: I ran it for several years myself.)  

One of the key features of the CWS was that it provided a 24/7 "warning officer" who was on call to be attached to Incident Commands that had public warning requirements.  The WO played that same consultant role, collaborating with the IC to craft an appropriate and effective message... or sometimes not, as per your example.  We found that having that "rewrite desk" function was key to getting the operators to use the system, well, or at all.

And I agree that the dis-intermediation effect of IPAWS has led to some alerts that we might not have expected.  My favorite example was a "riot act" WEA from the Dakota Access pipeline protests, wherein the Sheriff's office advised folks in the vicinity that (quoting from memory here) "Burning property is a felony offense.  Leave the area immediately or be subject to arrest."  Appropriate or in-?  Scholars differ.  Nonetheless, increasing automation is a reality, not just in broadcasting but generally.  People can activate IPAWS, or Tweet, or whatever, off the top of their heads, and the results are sometimes covfefe.

Not sure how to turn back the clock on that, though.

Art