Isnt this the purpose of the Emergency Alert System? That takes over Radio, TV, and most media.
For sure! But as already mentioned, EAS is for a widespread generic message. It's meant to alert you to something big happening when you might not be tuned in to "current events" so that you then can tune into said "current event" on TV or local AM/FM to get the details.
In this situation it's about speed and information accuracy. Camp Fire was 1 hour from point of ignition to reaching Paradise 7.5 miles away (nevermind the community of Concow in between). Roughly 630am ignition, 730am fire reached the eastern edge of Paradise. That is dangerous rate of spread for a fire, and if it had started just 1 hour earlier, the death toll would be even more catastrophic as the bulk of town would still be sleeping.
AM/FM radio DJ's usually keep people apprised of local situations as they're happening, but their sources of info are pretty disconnected from primary sources and delayed. Facebook feeds, twitter feeds, interpreting a scanner maybe, some call-in's from panicked listeners. Getting a PIO in there ASAP, with direct source of primary intel, would get an evac going as smooth as possible considering the circumstances. Either the DJ passes the PIO info live, or the PIO gets the microphone. Hindsight is 20/20 of course. Even with a well-oiled plan, practice, procedures in place etc, it would still take a PIO maybe 30 minutes to get to a radio station's studio and get established, and that's only AFTER the agency identifies the actual need to pull that card and get the PIO to the station. With Camp Fire's timing, and everything already perfectly in place, it'd still probably take a PIO until 830am to identify the scope of the crisis, get in the studio and start giving evac instructions.
In short, we need an ability to get timely/highly accurate evac info out to residents in rural areas with limited egress. And as a society we need to not be as litigious as we are, and be understanding and take matters into our own hands. Stop blaming and suing everyone else. Because our agencies will never place a PIO in a studio like that and give info out that has 1% chance of steering someone into danger "because the voice on the radio said it was safe". Our PIO's are getting better over the last few years, especially on the fire side, but it's still pretty distilled "safe for consumption" info.
