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

[Sean Donelan]

On Fri, 7 Jan 2022, Dave Kline wrote:
> Gee... don't all garage door openers have a way to release the 
> mechanism, so it can be opened manually when the power is out. Or was it 
> that those asking the FD to help, simply wanted someone else, who is not 
> them, to do the door lifting? Will these same people die in a fire 
> because the doors were all locked?

The public doesn't read instruction manuals, in advance or ever.  Why 
do bars keep chain locking fire exit doors, even when there is a big sign 
on the door saying it must be kept unlocked.

Whether or not there was a public alert, those people would have the same 
problem with their garage doors.  But sending the public alert earlier, 
before the utility power fails in the area, give people more time to 
open their garage doors or move their cars outside the garage even if 
they don't immediately evacuate.

Delaying public alerts, because officials worry about causing a panic 
or calls to many 9-1-1 calls is mostly a myth.  Late warnings and lack of 
information is what drives up 9-1-1 calls and deaths.

Broken record: states should learn from disasters other states in the 
nation. Counties should learn from other counties.  Nations should learn 
from other nations.

Tenessee, California, Oregon, etc. learned some of this lessons.  Do 
people have to die in wildfires in every other state before they will 
learn?