[EAS] CA Fires/EAS Activation

[Ed Czarnecki]

As far as "kingdom agencies" I really don't think that is the case in the
California county, or the Virginia counties that Paul is talking about.

Simple questions/observations
- Is additional training/pre-planning needed among local authorities in the
use of various mass notification tools?  Is there a need for "best
practices" on what approaches to use under various scenarios?  If yes, who
takes on such a role or task?

- Is there sufficient communication between local authorities and their
alerting partners as to roles and expectations?  That's easy in the case of
WEA or SMS - type in the message, and off it goes ...  EAS is a much more
complex partnership between authorities and local EAS participants.  In some
local areas, there is a tight social relationship between the agency and at
least the local primary stations.  In other cases, it seems that this
dialogue has stagnated, if it was ever there at all.

From: EAS [mailto:eas-bounces at radiolists.net] On Behalf Of Barry Mishkind

Hi Paul,

You raise good questions, germane to the situation California. 

Part of the solution is suggested by your comments that the EMs don't know
you nor your station hotline.

Wh is there no contact/conversation/planning between you all?  If you heard
from a listener that a fire was raging nearby, what would you do? 
        1. Nothing, because you are fully automated, and NO ONE pays
                any attention to EAS, the phones, etc. ("Don't bother us at
night!")?
        2. Call the local EM (do you have HIS number?) and get details to
air?
        3. Contact local 911 center for information/direction?
        4. Receive a call from  EM, who knows your station, and has the
number
                of someone who cares 24/7?
        5. Look to the local LP-1 (oh, that's you!) to contact whatever
agency
                or entity your local plan calls for to originate alerts? If
no one
                knows who is the top of the EAS alerting, perhaps it is time
                to open dialog. 
        6. Provide the information from your listener to the EM agency, in
                case no one has called them - or the EM is doing something
                really smart like trying reverse 911 in an area where the
                phone lines were burned (remember Colorado?)?

Once an alert is issued, do you have a plan as to what your stations would
do?

Even if the SECC is not helpful (as in many states) any station can plan for
handling disasters, if their desire is to serve the community. Look at what
KZLT did. (link from www.theBDR.net/articles/fcc/eas/eas.html)

Clay Freinwald will likely talk about the close cooperation there is in the
Seattle area. That is fine.... although not always the way in many places.
There still is a lot of "Kingdom" agencies that  do not want to let any
information out, as it might reduce their "Kingdom."  Stations should work
to knock that down. But, it does take commitment to the community, something
sadly lacking in many places. 

I can attest to a major forest fire here, going up one side of the mountain
range (10,000 feet) and the down to a town mostly shielded from Tucson.
Their local station is part of a consolidator, who replaced the burned
transmitter site with an emergency transmitter and antenna flown in, so the
automated hits format could keep playing to the big city!  There was no
thought to taking a transmitter or exciter and a coat hanger out to the some
town and broadcast from a van or card table. But, they did, apparently, meet
their sales quota for the month.

At 08:02 AM 10/17/2017, Paul Campbell wrote:
>Regarding the decision of the Santa Rosa officials to "not activate EAS"
for the fires, I'm a little curious just how that would've been done had
their decision gone the other way.
>

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