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FEMA and FCC Plan Nationwide Emergency Alert Test for Oct. 4, 2023

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Re: FEMA and FCC Plan Nationwide Emergency Alert Test for Oct. 4, 2023

#21

Post by inferiorhuman »

Thlom wrote: post #8

We had a national test in Norway that mostly worked OK a few months ago. But then they wanted to use it in a real emergency in early August(some specific areas were about to be flooded due to heavy rain) and that didn’t work as well. First of all cell phones way out of the flood area were getting emergency messages, some of these got several messages in different languages and different wording over several days. It…

Well we did recently have a pretty spectacular failure of the emergency alert system in Hawaii.

Re: FEMA and FCC Plan Nationwide Emergency Alert Test for Oct. 4, 2023

#22

Post by inferiorhuman »

Scarjit wrote: post #10
pts_ wrote: post #7

We had the same all the way out here in India. Wonder what do these governments know in order to coordinate like this.

In germany we now have a "Warntag" [literally "Warn day"], which is scheduled to be once per Year in September. This is mostly a result of a previous test, which revealed that in case of a catastrophe, most germans would not be warned (Sirens not functioning, cell broadcast was not used, ...) Sadly the website of our Federal Office for Civil Protection and Disaster Assistance is not translating every page to english.…

San Francisco used to test their sirens weekly which was frequent enough that both the siren and the incoherent verbal bits just kinda blended into the background.

Re: FEMA and FCC Plan Nationwide Emergency Alert Test for Oct. 4, 2023

#23

Post by eastbound »

Thlom wrote: post #8

We had a national test in Norway that mostly worked OK a few months ago. But then they wanted to use it in a real emergency in early August(some specific areas were about to be flooded due to heavy rain) and that didn’t work as well. First of all cell phones way out of the flood area were getting emergency messages, some of these got several messages in different languages and different wording over several days. It…

Test messages are spam.

After the pandemic, I think we’re quite a number to not trust the public services (either act too late, or try to revive the panic when it’s over). When I received the alert test messages, which, I remind, will not only be used to amplify terrorism scare but also for crowd management during flood, tell you to avoid protests, and then to tell us that we should urgently take the vaccine…

No thanks. Even one test message that was irrelevant to me was enough to preemptively block all scare levels them at the OS level (which is possible, at least in iOS in France).

Re: FEMA and FCC Plan Nationwide Emergency Alert Test for Oct. 4, 2023

#24

Post by cowsandmilk »

jfk13 wrote: post #20
array-species wrote: post #17

Funny FEMA should just now come up, I just now spent some time considering FEMA! It is very surprising to me that much emergency infrastructure exists, without providing very basic things to households like regionally relevant emergency kits and something like one month of MRE + Water. Rather than it sitting in some warehouse... because distribution becomes a very immediate problem. Not forced but, offered to anyone…

I suspect that if you distributed emergency supplies ahead of time, some people would treat it as a convenient handout and simply consume them. And even aside from the temptation to use the supplies, not everyone would be able to find a place to store a month of rations & water.

Not to mention hurricanes and tornadoes will likely destroy the rations for those who need them most.

Re: FEMA and FCC Plan Nationwide Emergency Alert Test for Oct. 4, 2023

#25

Post by lozenge »

bpye wrote: post #13
supernova87a wrote: post #4

I wonder how this works technically? and to what extent it taxes the bandwidth of the system / backhaul / towers / channels? Is it: Cell tower: "Every phone currently connected to this tower -- display this message now " or Cell tower: "subscriber 202-555-1212 known to be connected to this tower, display this message now " , "subscriber 202-555-1213 known to be connected to this tower, display this message now ", etc…

Fun tidbit, the UK until this year didn’t have a cellular broadcast system. During the pandemic the government worked with each mobile provider individually to deliver notices to every subscriber [0]. [0] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UK_Emergency_Alert_System#Coro...

And it took like a full day.

Re: FEMA and FCC Plan Nationwide Emergency Alert Test for Oct. 4, 2023

#27

Post by jeffrallen »

Scarjit wrote: post #10
pts_ wrote: post #7

We had the same all the way out here in India. Wonder what do these governments know in order to coordinate like this.

In germany we now have a "Warntag" [literally "Warn day"], which is scheduled to be once per Year in September. This is mostly a result of a previous test, which revealed that in case of a catastrophe, most germans would not be warned (Sirens not functioning, cell broadcast was not used, ...) Sadly the website of our Federal Office for Civil Protection and Disaster Assistance is not translating every page to english.…

Nice documentary about how the Swiss system works:

https://youtu.be/zybgpvd3ExE

:)

Re: FEMA and FCC Plan Nationwide Emergency Alert Test for Oct. 4, 2023

#28

Post by throw0101b »

bpye wrote: post #14
Scarjit wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In germany we now have a "Warntag" [literally "Warn day"], which is scheduled to be once per Year in September. This is mostly a result of a previous test, which revealed that in case of a catastrophe, most germans would not be warned (Sirens not functioning, cell broadcast was not used, ...) Sadly the website of our Federal Office for Civil Protection and Disaster Assistance is not translating every page to english.…

BC is similar [0], though it’s twice a year. [0] - https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/safety/public-safety/emer...

Also: https://www.alertready.ca/testing-schedule/

Re: FEMA and FCC Plan Nationwide Emergency Alert Test for Oct. 4, 2023

#30

Post by bombcar »

jfk13 wrote: post #20
array-species wrote: post #17

Funny FEMA should just now come up, I just now spent some time considering FEMA! It is very surprising to me that much emergency infrastructure exists, without providing very basic things to households like regionally relevant emergency kits and something like one month of MRE + Water. Rather than it sitting in some warehouse... because distribution becomes a very immediate problem. Not forced but, offered to anyone…

I suspect that if you distributed emergency supplies ahead of time, some people would treat it as a convenient handout and simply consume them. And even aside from the temptation to use the supplies, not everyone would be able to find a place to store a month of rations & water.

The best "emergency supplies" are consumed over time, to keep them fresh. If you're planning ahead, you just make sure that the consumables you have that can last a month, you have a month supply of.

And that is expensive (something like $1k per household, perhaps, based on https://www.costco.com/chef's-banquet-one-month-emergency-fo... ).

The US is amazing at transportation in general, and it makes more sense for each state to maintain emergency supplies they can move in a moment's notice.

But households should in general be prepared to survive about a week without outside assistance; if you're more wealthy you can increase that.

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