Emergency Alert System Needs More Clarity, Accuracy, Training, Relevance, FCC/FEMA Workshop Told
Public safety and emergency experts emphasized the need for more clarity, accuracy and relevance in emergency alert procedures and systems, they said at the FCC and Federal Emergency Management Agency’s 21st Century emergency alerting workshop Thursday, citing lessons learned from an emergency alert system test in Alaska in January. The FCC should extend the deadline for installing updated Emergency Alert System (EAS) gear and the federal government should fund more training to use it, some said.
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National testing showed the need for consistency on EAS and some confusion about what should be used for location code, what originator code should be used and how decoders react to messages, said Steve Johnson, consultant to the NCTA. He noted that during the Alaska test, an incorrectly coded message resulted in an invalid message on cable operators’ EAS equipment. He also urged establishing training programs and having a clarification of the national alerting procedures. The cable industry has its own challenges, he acknowledged. Cable operators are delivering programming to TV sets and various consumer devices, he said. “We have all these different platforms we need to support,” he said. For broadcasters, looking forward, there hasn’t been much clarity on how many different sources need to be monitored, said Kelly Williams, a senior director with NAB.
"We still have challenges in the area of training the originators,” said Henry Black, manager of the Maryland Emergency Management Agency’s Communications Branch. More funding is needed for training, he said. Additionally, officials should make sure the terminology used in alerts is clear and accurate so that when an alert goes out, everybody understands, he said. A lot of work needs to be done in reaching ethnic communities, he said. There should be a large educational effort, said Brian Josef, and educating the alert originators and the public is critical. CTIA has been working with various agencies on standardization of alert systems, he said. Making sure the Commercial Mobile Alert System (CMAS) can work is a top priority, he said.
Having national drills on a regular basis is key to creating awareness, said Wade Witmer, deputy division director with FEMA’s Integrated Public Alert and Warning System Programs, which aims to develop next-generation infrastructure for alert and warning networks. “We are developing a system based on standards, protocols and technologies,” said Mark Paese, a director with the National Weather Service. He emphasized the importance of partnership with broadcasters, telecom operators and government and non-profit agencies. The FCC has several responsibilities, including to help the entry of new technologies into alert systems and enable reasonable transition, among other things, said Gregory Cooke, associate chief of the FCC Public Safety & Homeland Security Bureau’s (PSHSB) Policy Division. PSHSB chief James Barnett said broadband has the ability to reach more people faster. A comprehensive alert system will leverage multiple technologies, he said.
Extending the deadline for EAS participants to accept a Common Alerting Protocol-based alert is necessary as the 180-day “shot clock” may not be enough time for manufacturers to design, build, test and distribute new EAS gear, said Williams. The FCC is aware of the concerns on constraint of the 180-day shot clock and is looking at the comments carefully, said Cooke.
Emergency managers need standard practices for warnings, said Art Botterell, a public warning consultant. Many emergencies are local but there have been a growing class of emergencies on the federal level, involving different jurisdictions, he said. Some state and local jurisdictions are ahead of the federal agencies on emergency alert systems and procedures, he said. Denis Gusty, a deputy director with Department of Homeland Security, agreed, saying the current version of EAS, a federal system, has its limitations. The real question is how next-generation EAS works with state and local systems, he said.
Brian Daly, a director at AT&T Mobility Service, said different types of media support are needed. Yet agencies have to be careful not to overwhelm the public, he said. Meanwhile, updating alert information and targeting alerts are critical, he said, urging timely and effective distribution of messages. It’s important to send out alert messages in more than one format, said Claude Stout, executive director with Telecom for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing. He also urged the FCC to make more spectrum available.
It’s the people at the local level that use the emergency systems that need to be addressed, said Darryl Ernst, chief technologist with ErnsTek, urging government officials to look at training requirements. Technology can facilitate training of local officials too, he said. Going from traditional networks to next-generation systems, there’s more dependence on traffic load, said Mike Nawrocki, an executive director with Verizon. Other panelists also raised the potential issue of congestion on next-generation networks. When it sends alerts in different languages, it’s the government’s responsibility to make sure the language is precise and accurate, several panelists said.