[EAS] Announcements

[Sean Donelan]

On Mon, 10 Sep 2018, Rich Parker wrote:
> ....and less you all think I'm being characteristically cynical about
> EAS, check out this 'one' example of 'where to get information' -
>
> https://www.wavy.com/weather/hurricane/where-to-get-emergency-information-during-hurricane-florence/1431792596

Lots of tools in the toolbox.  Subscription based alert systems are good 
for people interested in an area, but not necessarily in the area. Such as 
letting evacuees from a specific area know when its ok to return.  Or if 
they have vacation homes or relatives in the area.

Usually less than 15% of residents in an area sign up or keep their 
subscriptions up to date.  So subscription based alert systems aren't good 
at reaching tourists or short-fuse events when you don't have time to 
remind people to subscribe.  Subscription based alert systems are great 
for informational messaging, e.g. neighborhood reminders about leaf pickup 
schedules or students/parents for individual school closing.

The challange is still teaching local emergency officials how to 
appropriately use *ALL* of the tools in their toolbox. Some officials tend 
to have tunnel vision, and only use one tool for everything.  Since some 
subscription-based alerting systems cost a lot of money, the mayor 
and city councils tend to remember those systems exist because they vote 
on that budget item every year.  Those systems also get more use because 
they are used for non-emergency communications.

Training, policies, funding....