A National Dialogue on the Emergency Alert System EAS Community Engagement Activities

We'd like to welcome the EAS community to A National Dialogue of the Emergency Alert System (EAS). We look forward to your ideas and discussions on the various EAS topics and categories (on the left hand side of the page). Thank you for participating as we look forward to the June 9th EAS Participant Virtual Roundtable (click the link above).

Some of us are wondering who is going to create the public awareness campaign for the national test. The state broadcasting association was of immense value for the two Alaska tests, and came up with their "Chill, it's only a Drill" campaign. We need to ask for help with this from the advertising community, maybe through the NAB. The message may have to be adjusted since we will be dealing with 49 other states, but most... more »

I have to ask, why is this the first National EAS test? I would've thought that since the initial program began (circa 1953) there would be national tests. After the false alarm of 1971 (EBS), or more recently after 1997 when EAS was implemented (using SAME). What caused the delay up to this point?

Guidelines for local individual and community emergency response; i.e. info about shelter, medical help, emergency status of emergency, food, water, clothing, etc.

I suggest that all SECC's reach out to their respective state's professional emergency management associations. Nationally, we need to do more outreach to NEMA, the organization that State emergency managers belong to. We need to not only meet with professional EM's at all levels, but ask them if we can get on programs for their conventions, and allow them the opportunity to meet with local broadcasters.

The slide presentation is available at this link:

Would a toolkit with handouts, fact sheets, FAQs, and recommendations on messaging be helpful for State/local government to spread the word about the Test? Would a quick PSA template also help?

Millions of Americans use Facebook, Google, AOL to communicate. It would be very advantageous to establish contracts to syndicate EAS messages online during a national event. Additionally, it would be ideal to partner with social media outlets and email providers to create applications which allow users to voluntarily subscribe their email address and contact info into local emergency notification systems.

Include NOAA Weather Radio in upcoming National Test.

I liked the PSA ideas played in Friday's web meeting. NAB said, as I recall, that there were scripts on their website but I can't find them. Maybe this website would be a good place to post PSA ideas/scripts or links to them. Then we can "borrow" and/or adapt ideas from them.

As an average American I would like to express 2 concerns.

1) Did anyone actually consider that 11/9 is the inverse of 9/11. In my opinion not the best date choice!

2) Americans are used to EAS tests. In my opinion it was not necessary to announce a test of this magnititude. In addition you have alerted on a massive scale the test date to every enemy we have.

I expect more thoughtfull action from people in charge!

Some people will not always be tied in to a communication device should an emergency arise. Methods are needed to cover these circumstances. Some activities will not allow access to communication devices. Some ideas: 1. Bring back the emergency siren type methods the CD used during the cold war. 2. Add some sort of visual signals in addition to audio signals. This would also aid those with hearing impairments. 3.... more »

I don’t know if the National Alert Service is the correct forum, but I would like to address a recent issue that came up with Alert Systems in general. As you know, Western Massachusetts experienced an extreme snow event last week which put power out to almost all of Western Mass. and Connecticut. All of the “what to do in an emergency” manuals said keep a battery operated radio and wait for announcements. Well, with... more »

If NOAA was part of this process, why is NOAA not participating in the drill? Emergency managers in Florida, and across the Country, have been promoting NOAA weather radios for years. Now, during one of the most critical tests in national EAS history - we aren't even going to use this technology. It's very confusing to us and the citizens. Now we are having to give an alternate message to groups. "Ignore weather... more »

What about a broadcast text message to all cell phones (free to subscriber) registered to a United States address?