[EAS] Good article on EAS in AK

[Adrienne Abbott]

Rich--
Just got a chance to read the article and even though the reporter did a
thorough job of looking into the situation, I have several questions...Was
the NOAA connection to IPAWS disabled because NWS is not capable of issuing
CAP EAS messages? It's one thing to say that the NWS office "disabled" the
IPAWS connection, but it's an entirely different thing if NWS is incapable
of sending CAP messages. Yes, NWS can send an EAS message, but the content
of a SAME EAS message is very limited compared to what you would receive in
a CAP EAS message. No NWS office is issuing CAP EAS messages at this time.
While NOAA is working on a CAP platform, it has been a very slow process.
Nevada has volunteered to be a test site for NWS CAP EAS activations when
NOAA is ready to roll out a product. 

Also, why did it take so long for the people involved here to notice that no
EAS messages had been issued, including a CAP EAS message from EMNet? Why
didn't anyone call EMNet directly to find out why they hadn't issued a CAP
EAS activation? Why wasn't there a back up to EMNet? Why doesn't Alaska have
a plan for using another state or the FEMA IPAWS office to issue CAP EAS
activations? 

As an example, our IPAWS CAP provider recently developed a problem and we
had two CAP EAS test failures within a 12-hour period. In both cases, the
CAP EAS originators reported their test failures to me. I called our
provider and the problem was fixed within hours, even though it was a
weekend. 
Adrienne
 

Adrienne Abbott
Nevada EAS Chair

-----Original Message-----
From: EAS <eas-bounces at radiolists.net> On Behalf Of Rich Parker