[EAS] [BC] What's the point of LP-1s anymore?

[Clay Freinwald]

MM Wrote- 

If the simulation Cascadia Rising, then the latest set of hurricanes didn't
enlighten EMS people along the seacost about the fragility of the WWW, it
will never sink in.

I happen to feel the one hop daisy chain for a given operational area isn't
a bad back-up. Especially if the link between the AHJ's EOC and the
LP-1 and LP2 is by dedicated private wireless link...either voice or data.

The key is to take the common carrier and their fragile facilities out of
the equation and follow the KISS principal.

Good stuff, Mike !

The problem here is that we have become extremely complacent when it comes
to our new communications tools.  The more features and capability that are
added the greater our dependency on them.    Couple this with the human
nature to develop habits and you can see what develops.     Even I, during a
power failure, will walk into a room and turn on the light switch....Even
though I know well the power is out.      With a large scale/long term power
outage after a Cascadia Event, there is going to be a ton of things that
will not work for some time.

When faced with the choice - Feature Rich communications systems (Bling)
vs.  Minimal feature- simplistic- reliable communications - Bling will
always win.

One of the classic examples of this is when I was doing corporate duty with
Entercom - I would ask a local chief about their auxiliary generator and how
much fuel supply they hand on hand. 
I would then ask about re-supply (this is where things typically went
down-hill).    Questions like - How can you be assured of re-supply of fuel
when there are other entities that are deemed to be of a higher priority?

Here's another - All those small portable generators need fuel.  Perhaps the
owner has a few gallons on hand- Ask them were they are going to get more
fuel when they need it... Then ask them how many places that sell Gas/Diesel
etc can pump it with the power out?

Natural Gas power generators are likely to be useless in a major quake also.

Believe me, I could (and have) gone on...

The Cascadia Exercise proved that a number of things have not been well
thought out.    For some great additional information on this- Check the
Seattle Times Web Site - They ran a series of excellent stories on this
topic - It's going to be considerably more ugly than many have experienced.
Think -  Puerto Rico

Clay