[EAS] Blue Alerts Are Back

[Dave Turnmire]

On 5/24/2017 10:34 PM, Botterell, Arthur at CalOES wrote:
> There seems to be some level of agreement that applying the SAME event codes to WEA complicates things in some unwelcome ways... especially when new codes are proposed seemingly every year.
Just to point out one flip side of the argument... the alerting system 
used in our state can and is used for issuing BOTH EAS and WEA alerts.  
It is principally which box(s) you check.  It streamlines the process at 
the very time the event has them busy. The use of previously created 
templates further streamlines that process.  Indeed, if NOAA could get 
their technology working, we could also check the "NWEM" box and have 
the alerts go out directly through NOAA "All Hazards Radio" rather than 
indirectly as at present.

In short, it seems to me that there remains some advantages to having 
some correspondence between EAS event codes and WEA.  That isn't to say 
you can't take advantage of the uniqueness of WEA to send out alerts 
unique to WEA when warranted.  Just as we have a number of EAS event 
types that can't be sent via WEA.  But for those types of public warning 
events that warrant getting the message out to the public by the maximum 
number of means possible in as short of time as possible... including 
BOTH EAS and WEA... lets make it as easy as possible for the originators.

Dave