Spotted this in the news

Bush Orders Update of Emergency Alert System

By Spencer S. Hsu

Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, June 27, 2006; Page A04

President
Bush yesterday ordered Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff to
overhaul the nation’s hodgepodge of public warning systems,
acknowledging a critical weakness unaddressed since the 2001 terrorist
attacks and exposed again last year by Hurricane Katrina.

The Emergency Alert System, best known for weather bulletins and Amber
Alerts for missing children, should be upgraded to explore
communicating by cellphones, personal digital assistants and text
pagers targeted to geographic areas or specific groups, U.S. officials
said.

In a 30-paragraph executive order issued by the White House without
comment, Bush assigned Chertoff to implement a freshly stated U.S.
policy “to ensure that under all conditions the President can
communicate with the American people,” including in cases of war,
terrorist attack, natural disaster or other public danger.

I live in an area that broadly speaking has both tsunami warning systems and earthquake (volcano) monitoring. Both have proven problematic at times. False warnings have been generated, even sent to the media. This isn’t good for public confidence.

Given what I know about the specific technologies deployed, and some past work related to EAS, the executive order is underkill. The entire system is long overdo for major overhaul. While the order does call for a “quantum leap forward,” the reality is that funding is for pilot programs over three years. I see this as a political move, with no impending change or improvement. It’s fluff and talk to show we care, not actionable commitments to produce results.

Technorati Tags: Emergency Alert System, EAS, disaster response

Filed by Ken at 9:58 am under General, Politics, Technology