SAME-type Radio Alerts for urgent Evacuation

[Wilrobnson]

+1 for the mentions of apathy among the general public.

We live in an area that is well known for inclement weather. Last year we had a tornado on the ground. Within seconds, the county EOC was broadcasting, and WEA messages popped on everyone's phones.

I happened to be at the grocery store at the time and watched as A LOT of people looked at their phones in annoyance, read the "TORNADO ON THE GROUND- SEEK SHELTER NOW" message, then shrugged and went back to looking for Flaming Hot Cheetos or whatever.

Apathy.

 

[belvdr]

+1 for the mentions of apathy among the general public.

We live in an area that is well known for inclement weather. Last year we had a tornado on the ground. Within seconds, the county EOC was broadcasting, and WEA messages popped on everyone's phones.

I happened to be at the grocery store at the time and watched as A LOT of people looked at their phones in annoyance, read the "TORNADO ON THE GROUND- SEEK SHELTER NOW" message, then shrugged and went back to looking for Flaming Hot Cheetos or whatever.

Apathy.

By default, many phones are inundated with numerous alerts, from AMBER alerts that aren't even close to the area in question to weather alerts for storms that have already passed. The information is not trusted due to the noise. If they want people to take it seriously, it needs to be tuned better.

 

[CrabbyMilton]

They often issue alerts to phones every time a 65 year old man is 5 minutes late from the store. Or some 15 year old girl who's in the habit of running away for days at a time. After awhile people start to ignore those alerts.

 

[wa8pyr]

By default, many phones are inundated with numerous alerts, from AMBER alerts that aren't even close to the area in question to weather alerts for storms that have already passed. The information is not trusted due to the noise. If they want people to take it seriously, it needs to be tuned better.

I turned Amber Alerts off on my phone for that very reason. I was getting bombarded with those things, many of which had nothing to do with my area, nor was there any intel given that the perp might be headed my way.

 

[belvdr]

I turned Amber Alerts off on my phone for that very reason. I was getting bombarded with those things, many of which had nothing to do with my area, nor was there any intel given that the perp might be headed my way.

Same here, but the default settings are unchanged by many. Further, the weather apps are horrendous in this regard. When I enabled notifications for one of them, I was getting every notification possible, such as "Special Weather Statement", which were things like "tomorrow will be much colder/warmer than yesterday". Make enough noise, and you'll soon lose others' interest.

 

[mmckenna]

Same here, but the default settings are unchanged by many. Further, the weather apps are horrendous in this regard. When I enabled notifications for one of them, I was getting every notification possible, such as "Special Weather Statement", which were things like "tomorrow will be much colder/warmer than yesterday". Make enough noise, and you'll soon lose others' interest.

This has been echo'd by others. It's a big issue, "alert fatigue". It's a known issue, but its hard to control. You want to give access to the right people to trigger alerts in a timely fashion, but there needs to be a certain level of discipline.

It's a tight rope that has to be walked, and many are not good at it.

I'm in the same boat, I started shutting off a lot of the alerts since they were getting to be too much. I still get some by e-mail, and it's funny how they'll spam and entire county for evacuating one single street.

 

[wa8pyr]

This has been echo'd by others. It's a big issue, "alert fatigue". It's a known issue, but its hard to control. You want to give access to the right people to trigger alerts in a timely fashion, but there needs to be a certain level of discipline.

It's a tight rope that has to be walked, and many are not good at it.

I'm in the same boat, I started shutting off a lot of the alerts since they were getting to be too much. I still get some by e-mail, and it's funny how they'll spam and entire county for evacuating one single street.

I'm right in the middle of setting up our new mass notification package. So many possible settings I'm about to go nuts.

However, a big advantage is that it allows me to set up geofence templates so we can restrict notifications to specific areas, such as a single municipality. I don't really want to drill down any finer than that at the moment, lest our dispatchers get overloaded from feature creep.

 

[Wilrobnson]

We rarely get Amber alerts here and the only weather WEA alerts I've seen were for a hurricane 2 years ago and that tornado event. No bombardment, just apathy.

 

[belvdr]

We rarely get Amber alerts here and the only weather WEA alerts I've seen were for a hurricane 2 years ago and that tornado event. No bombardment, just apathy.

I'm the opposite situation. I get AMBER alerts from even the surrounding states. The weather apps are really a problem too. I don't believe I've received a notification from anyone else regarding weather.

 

[GlobalNorth]

States control Amber/Silver/Blue/Camo/Clear/EDP alerts. They set the parameters for issuance and the amount of official kvetching that goes on if one is not done within parameters is akin to the Bush/Gore election reviews on hanging chads. Police executives get involved, special interest groups get involved, community advocates get involved, etc. It is a freaking nightmare. Every missing child, every overdue adult, every vulnerable person, had to have a report with a specific checklist attached to it detailing every possible circumstance and then had to be approved by a Lieutenant and a Communications Manager in a physical meeting within two hours to review the circumstances and get the alert to the State authorities.

I was in LE for decades during the birth of the Amber and Silver alerting system and I had no clue what a Camo or a Clear alert was.

Too many systems competing for a very limited public attention span has degraded the whole idea.

 

[mmckenna]

Too many systems competing for a very limited public attention span has degraded the whole idea.

We had something very similar happen at work. Too many people had access to the "Everyone" e-mail list. It got abused so bad that the executives finally took all access away from everyone except a very short, short list of individuals. Getting an e-mail out to everyone takes approvals that are very closely guarded.

Abuse of communications like that is a bad thing.

 

[krokus]

I was in LE for decades during the birth of the Amber and Silver alerting system and I had no clue what a Camo or a Clear alert was.

Never heard of a camo or clear alert, before a few posts back. What are they?

 

[hiegtx]

Never heard of a camo or clear alert, before a few posts back. What are they?

See this. This applies to Texas, but I suspect that similar definitions are used elsewhere.

https://www.star-telegram.com/news/state/texas/article273638960.html

 

[KB2GOM]

The challenge is getting people to have a NOAA radio in their home and having it turned on.

"In other words, if you build an idiot proof alert system, they'll just build better idiots"

Amen, brother, Amen!

 

[KB2GOM]

There isn't one solution that is going to be accepted by everyone and work 100% of the time. There needs to be multiple approaches and people need to learn to look out for themselves and their neighbors. Even with all that, $#!t is going to happen.

Redundancy in emergency alert systems is a good thing. Mike Smith -- MSE Creative Consulting Blog -- recommends at least two methods of receiving alerts. Our household has a cell phone that receives alerts and a NOAA weather radio. A ham radio tech license might also prove useful.

 

[AZMONITOR]

Where I reside I have two NOAA weather alert radios in standby mode, 24/7, in the home with battery backup. Being an avid scanner listener I also monitor two VHF high band frequencies, licensed to the county, that are used only to relay weather and emergency alerts to various commercial radio stations in the county. The sheriff's office and emergency management can activate the alerts. These two frequencies are programmed in multiple radios including a scanner with backup power located in the middle of the home and in the bedroom at night.
It works for me.

 

[f40ph]

According to the Maui website for information to the community about the sirens, it states they maybe used for a variety of reasons as outlined below;

"The all-hazard siren system can be used for a variety of both natural and human-caused events; including tsunamis, hurricanes, dam breaches, flooding, wildfires, volcanic eruptions, terrorist threats, hazardous material incidents, and more." (emphasis added)

Sadly, I believe they lumped in all-hazards in order to receive more funding. I see them TALK about all of these disaster types, yet I've NEVER seen them "train" the public (can that REALLY be done?) to tune a radio when you hear a siren. Unfortunately the truth is and always will be SIREN=TSUNAMI how can you ensure the message won't be misunderstood?

If I'm hanging out at the beach and am currently relatively SAFE from a wildfire, how do they know activating a siren won't take me AWAY from that safe location because I'm thinking Tsunami and don't have a radio nearby to tune to?

 

[dlwtrunked]

I turned Amber Alerts off on my phone for that very reason. I was getting bombarded with those things, many of which had nothing to do with my area, nor was there any intel given that the perp might be headed my way.

Sad that you would do that.

 

[dlwtrunked]

I will catagorically disagree with you on this topic. You want something similar to a radio that provides SAME-Alert type updates? Why not just get a SAME alert radio and lean on the actual local EMA people to you know...use the resources they have in front of them?

View attachment 147362

Read that second paragraph. It's already there. If the LOCAL EMERGENCY MANAGERS are inept or incapable, you need to think about that at voting time and/or raise the issue in your community. Raise hell, Praise Dale and enact change - don't go and insist on some new-hotness.

I think he wants something that where the alert would not be for a community but at the single home level. Of course loudspeakers and fire trucks outside already do that. But I guess he wants something like that before they show up. But is someone called them, you would think the neighbors would try to alert the residents.

 

[f40ph]

I guess I'm a sad person too.
Mine is off for the same reason. Yet I still hear about every Amber alert on the news, Twitter, and freeway message signs.
Not losing any sleep over it (anymore).