[sbe-eas] WP: review of tornado warnings after Rolling Fork Mississippi

[Sean Donelan]

WEA is only free if you can afford a mobile phone.  Weather apps are only 
free if you can afford a more expensive smartphone.

Weather radios are a one-time cost (usually about $50).  Mobile phones are 
a monthly cost. Lifeline Assistance may be available for some qualifying 
low-income families.  The lowest-cost "dumb" mobile phones don't support 
WEA 3.0 (polygon warnings) yet.  People unplug weather radios (or don't 
replace batteries) or turn off warnings in their mobile phones.

It sucks being poor in America (and sometimes deadly).


On Wed, 29 Mar 2023, Rob Dale wrote:
> WEA is free and covers all phones automatically, and many free weather apps
> would have alerted too. #LayersSaveLives
> 
> While the Indiana law is neat, there’s no evidence that it has saved lives
> There is no requirement to keep the radio plugged in and operational, and
> even in 2023 (16 years after polygon warnings begin) they still don’t use
> the polygon. They alert based on the whole county, and it doesn’t take too
> many false alarms plus “wrong area” wakeups to get those unplugged.