[EAS] Deja Vu: Boulder officials questioned over effectiveness of emergency notification system

[Sean Donelan]

On Fri, 7 Jan 2022, Bill Ruck wrote:
> My recommendation is to understand the problem from a dispatch perspective. 
> Perhaps arrange to spend some time in your local dispatch center to learn 
> their job.

A less snarky reponse.  Learn what happened in California counties after 
they started more public alerts and warnings for wildfires during the last 
year.

California counties are finding most of those concerns were myths.  Yes, 
more people did call 9-1-1, but it wasn't overwhelming.  Sending alerts 
early didn't create huge traffic jams, instead it spread out the traffic.

Instead they found out that door to door notification took longer, and 
diverted officers from traffic and emergency response.  Using public 
alerts reached more people, and reduced the length of door-to-door 
public interactions because 50% of the population already knew about it. 
Yes, there were always exceptions which required door-to-door response 
because of disabilities or some people some refuse to evacuate.

I understand local officials don't think they could learn from what 
happened to other departments in other states, because they are "special."

The reality is deaths in the Tennesse wildfires happened a couple of years 
before the deaths in the California wildfires. Colorado was lucky, its 
wildfire happened during the workday and fewer people were at home.

Nevertheless, there are a lot of lessons which could have been learned 
before the disaster.