[EAS] Kerrville and Ruidoso

[Barry Mishkind]

Listening to the people on the ground today - as opposed to "sources" 
- sure gives some different views of the two recent floods. After a 
week, perhaps it is time to consider what we *know* and what we do not.

1. The NWS - whether you agree with them or not - gave plenty of 
warning that bad weather was afoot.
         a. Yes, the NWS could have - and should have - connected 
with the FEMA and IPAWS.
             They didn't, and it looks like they will not leave the 
silo in the near future.
              A few WFOs do communicate with SECCs and LECCs. Not 
enough, but some.
         b. The NWS continues message flooding.
              This is a longstanding issue that - like some state 
organizations - have produced
              so many alerts that people stop listening. In one town, 
a station provided me
              with a file - seven pages - of alerts sent over three 
days. Part of the flooding
              is driven by the idiotic FIPS system.
         c. The NWS typically suggests people look at their website 
for information -
              ... assuming people can find it. And there is power for 
their computers
              and the Internet.

              Hooray the NWS did not leave people wondering.
              Boo! that there is no mechanism to prevent excessive 
breaking into a
               radio station's programming, *unless* the station 
takes their EAS
              machine out of "automatic" and actually collates and broadcasts
              information in good time.

2. Many (most?) of the NWS alerts made it to the WEA networks.
         a. the policy in the camps was "no cell phones" ...
         b. Even those that had cell phones might not have had
             sufficient signal coverage in these flood areas.
         c. At 1AM and 4AM, those with cell phones might
             have them on chargers - or otherwise not be
             able to hear them - if there was signal.
         d. Many cell phone users have tired of the number
             of alerts, many of them in the middle of the
             night because of misuse by some agencie that
             constantly alert that someone went missing several
             hundred miles away. They turned *off* the alerts.
         e. While I do not know the exact timing, we hear
             that the power was cut during the storm. That
             kills websites,

3. EAS - there has been so much pressure that AM in every
            vehicle is necessary for communication in
             emergencies.
         a. We still see far too many stations that do not
             forward alerts. In both Kerrville and Ruidoso it
             appears that there were stations serving the
             community. Why the news media usually
             mentions only NWS and WEA, but not EAS
             may be a reflection on GMs and PDs that
            do not care for EAS.
         b. The stations in the recent flood zones
             stayed on the air and gave information,
             assuming the kids could get their nose
             out of tiktok. But a good question is:
             what are the stations doing to get the
             kids to care about them?

             A station without generators is virtually
             useless in a severe emergency. It does
            seem at least some in Kerrville and
            Ruidoso either had gennys or did not
            lose utility power. Bravo to them
         c. Like cell phones, an EAS alert at
             4AM would be mostly useless unless
             someone was up and listening.
         d. Those stations that serve the PICON
              deserve praise.

4. There is said to be a "phone tree" from camp
            to camp to alert the neighbors. Could the
            camps be alerted? If the telephones
            were VoIP and power failed ... that might
            be a problem.

5. Anyone can say sirens were/are the answer. There
            apparently are several reasons why there
            were none.

6. What else should we know/learn?