Let's finally plan ahead.(government should plan for better emergency communication system)(Editorial)

Broadcasting & Cable, October, 2005

Remarkably, even Hurricane Katrina was not enough to trigger the national emergency alert system (EAS). It lay dormant even as the storm surge wiped out whole towns along the Gulf Coast, levees were breeched and much of New Orleans was reduced to flotsam. In those desperate times, the only alert system consisted of radio and TV stations that, heroically and come hell and high water, continued to broadcast life-saving information.

In fact, according to the FCC's Homeland Security point person, the federal government has not used the national EAS since it was revamped in the mid 1990s--not even during 9/11. Clearly, there is something wrong here. First, the government obviously ought to have used EAS. But second, it must use the tragedy of...

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