Comments on: Open Thread – The Emergency Alert System

By: tfr

tfr — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 17:15:09 +0000

Feel-good leftover of the Cold War. We recently had our worst disaster in maybe 70 years here in NH – massive ice storm that knocked out power for as much as 3 weeks in parts of the state. Temps down to 20F, no heat, no phone, no water for many, all roads blocked by fallen trees for several days. Local radio stations playing pop music and Rush Limbaugh – gee, that was really helpful. And they still do the EBS test once a week……

By: tarran

tarran — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 23:01:44 +0000

It's actually a quite insecure and easily hacked system. Personally, I'd like to see it scrapped.

By: trumpetbob15

trumpetbob15 — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 22:44:23 +0000

It has to be a a psychological band-aid because those tests always occur when people WANT to watch TV or listen to the radio. A true test really only needs to occur in off-hours to prove the system itself works; by being during the day, it shows something is being done, but not necessarily the best thing.

It reminds me of the time in high school I went to a college for a smart kids summer class thing. On the first night, the fire alarm went off because a belt got caught in a dryer in the basement. The college students acting as counselors told us to head to the basement because it was a tornado warning. (Don’t ask me why that was their first thought.) Sure, the system worked physically, but did it really do what it was supposed to? Not unless you count the firefighters stopping all of us high school kids and telling us to go outside instead.