[sbe-eas] Why does California keep botching emergency evacuation alerts?

[Aaron Read]

Indeed, this is true.  I think there COULD be an argument that the LA basin
is somewhat uniquely insane.  But if you objectively stacked it up against,
say, the NYC metro?  It wouldn't be all that more or less crazier.
 Probably the reason LA seems worse is because the disasters it faces (like
fast-moving wildfires) tend to be the kind that expose *any* possible
weakness in your emergency management/communications ecosystem.

In my own neck of the woods (Providence RI) I'm reasonably certain that if
MEMA and RIEMA had to deal with the issues LA deals with?  They'd fail just
as often and as miserably as the LA EMA's do.  That's not really to say
that MEMA/RIEMA inherently suck, mind you.  I know a lot of those guys, and
they're good people. It's just that emergencies in this region just aren't
the kind that really put EMA's to the test when it comes to communications
with the public.  (for sure they're tested in other ways, though!)  Our
emergencies tend to be limited to hurricanes, flash flooding from intense
rain, and blizzards.  All things that typically are known about days (or at
least several hours) in advance and local media does a fine job educating
the citizenry.  So they don't have to sweat WEA or EAS very often.  Almost
never, actually.  Besides the rare AMBER Alert, I'm at a loss to recall the
last EAS alert that RIEMA ordered for the last several years, if not the
last decade.  And we don't get a heck of a lot of WEA's, either.  I recall
a few sent during a spat of tornadoes in 2021 and 2022.  Drawing a blank on
any others, though...

That all said, my point was more that the problem with EAS and WEA isn't
really a problem with EAS and WEA; it's a problem with the very nature of
how our municipal emergency management systems are fundamentally
organized.   We can argue for more and better training for EMA personnel
and that certainly won't hurt, but I fear there isn't really a solution for
this that doesn't involve huge structural changes that politicians don't
want to make.   Christ, in Rhode Island we can't even (or perhaps it's WHY
we can't) get rid of the scourge of "fire districts
<https://thepublicsradio.org/article/fire-districts/>" despite zero utility
and rampant corruption.

- Aaron


On Fri, Jan 24, 2025 at 12:41 PM Sean Donelan <sean at donelan.com> wrote:

>
> I suspect you will find the same problems with any region with a combined
> population over 18.3 million.  Mutual Aid Agreements are necessary, but
> are rarely exercised enough.
>
> The After Action Report findings for any disaster with more than three
> responding organizations are almost always predictible.
>
> Every major metro area in the USA is a crazy patchwork of government
> agencies. Doesn't matter which state.  At the opposite extreme are rural
> areas with part-time emergency responders, and no funding.
>
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