[EAS] News Investigation: The Failure to Alert During Wildfires

[Sean Donelan]

Newsy, an E.W. Scripps company, has published an news investigation about 
the failures to alert the public during wildfires, with a focus on the 
role of IPAWS.

Its a 20-minute video report, and I recommend watching the video in 
addition to reading the article. Like any news report, there are a few 
points of confusion or mistakes with what the public and officials told 
the reporter. Overall, I think the reporter did a fairly good job
explaining a topic that can generate a lot of emotion and confusion.

https://www.newsy.com/stories/newsy-investigation-finds-wildfire-emergency-alerts-lacking/
Newsy Investigation Finds Wildfire Emergency Alerts Lacking
June 19, 2019

[...]
Mark Lucero, chief engineer of IPAWS at FEMA, said only a fraction of 
places eligible to be on the network have sought access to it. Other 
places have FEMA's approval to use IPAWS, but don't send alerts in 
emergencies.

"What we've seen is that there's a pretty small percentage of people who 
actually have access to IPAWS that are really using it, and we're trying 
to figure out why that is," Lucero said.
[...]