Friggin' emergency alert system!!!

[Ashful]

I guess this is the new normal, our TV's, phones, and even our house alarm is blasting us almost every night of the week the last two weeks, with Emergency Alerts. Not one of them has been an actual emergency, they're warnings about the fairly typical thunderstorms we get this time of year. This is new, never seen it before.

My gripe here, other than having my life constantly interrupted, is that it's guaranteed we're all going to start ignoring this system in the face of what could be a potential real emergency someday. Why on earth have I received more emergency alerts in the last two weeks, than in the combined decades 1980 - 2000?

We've received two separate alerts this evening, the second being for a thunderstorm that's a two hour drive from here, and headed away from us.

 

[Gotrek]

Yep abuse of the we want to scare you system us never good. People start to ignore it. Someone doesn't want to get sued so easier to overuse it then risk it.

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[Tom123]

Remember the story "The Boy who cried wolf"


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[Squirrely]

I guess this is the new normal, our TV's, phones, and even our house alarm is blasting us almost every night of the week the last two weeks, with Emergency Alerts.

There's no new normal for us because don't have a TV connection or a house alarm or smartphones. So our alerts are just minimal land line calls for wildfires picked up by an old fashioned answer machine.

By the time we get them we can already smell the smoke.

Greg

 

[begreen]

Yep abuse of the we want to scare you system us never good. People start to ignore it. Someone doesn't want to get sued so easier to overuse it then risk it.

Technology is wonderful until it purpose becomes to sell rather than improve living. Wait until robots start showing up in homes.

 

[Ashful]

Wait until robots start showing up in homes.

They already have. Not so much the mechanical sort (although we've had a fleet of robotic vacuums for 10 years, now), but in the form of Siri, Alexa, and Cortina.

 

[begreen]

They already have. Not so much the mechanical sort (although we've had a fleet of robotic vacuums for 10 years, now), but in the form of Siri, Alexa, and Cortina.

I think I'll pass on this phenomenon.

 

[Ashful]

I am serious about this new over-use of the emergency alert system. If it is to be used every time it rains, and I do not believe I am exaggerating in stating that has become the case in the last few weeks, it will be wholly ignored when there is a legitimate emergency. I do not believe I need an emergency alert interrupting my day, everytime a minor thunderstorm rolls through, even if it does carry some very remote possibility of "flash flooding".

What can be done to curb this recent change in the usage of this system?

 

[Squirrely]

What can be done to curb this recent change in the usage of this system?

Unplug it.

Greg

 

[begreen]

Unplug it.

+1 Our alert is when the house starts shaking

 

[velvetfoot]

I have found the multitude of flash flooding warnings useless for where I live.

How about those public service advertisements for wildfire proofing homes? Should be targeted better, like for instance, hot and dry state? Our tax dollars at work.

 

[Ashful]

Unplug it.

Greg

I live near an aging nuke plant. I'd like a functioning alert system, should it ever be required. I also like to be a good citizen, and pay attention to those Amber alerts.

 

[Squirrely]

Every location in which people choose to live has inherent assumed risks. Seeing as that's where you chose to live, I'm curious, what are you planning to do to resolve your alert situation?

The risks we chose to assume are earthquakes wildfires and mudslides, so we took practical measures to mitigate all three.

Since you chose to live close to a nuclear plant, you might consider investing in a geiger counter, or at least some dosimeters.



We have a counter because radiation is invisible without one. In addition to listening to warnings, it's a good idea to already have in place ways to protect yourself and your loved ones from what you're being warned about.

Greg

 

[Ashful]

Every location in which people choose to live has inherent assumed risks. Seeing as that's where you chose to live, I'm curious, what are you planning to do to resolve your alert situation?

The risks we chose to assume are earthquakes wildfires and mudslides, so we took practical measures to mitigate all three.

Since you chose to live close to a nuclear plant, you might consider investing in a geiger counter, or at least some dosimeters. We have a counter because radiation is invisible without one. In addition to listening to warnings, it's a good idea to already have in place ways to protect yourself and your loved ones from what you're being warned about.

Greg

Yes, but the ironic thing is, we don't have earthquakes, or wildfires, or mudslides, or even typically bad storms. We had one bad storm in the 1980's (Gloria), and then again in 2012 (Sandy). We once in my lifetime had a very small tornado, by the legal definition, but too small to cause much carnage.

As far as the nuke plant goes, the emergency alert system was my "plan", before this very recent use of using it to warn us about every thunderstorm that rolls thru. At the same time, I'm about 10 miles away, so I fall right on the edge of the emergency siren system they have installed around such plants. If there's ever an issue, they will sound those sirens. Having heard them tested a few times, there is no missing or mistaking what is happening, they seem to have been designed to wake the dead.

 

[Squirrely]

Doesn't sound like there is anything that can be done, but at least you have two different warning systems so you can tell which is the plant. Are you downwind or upwind? When I was a kid there were Civil Defense sirens all over and they would sound on the last Friday of the month at 10 am. Reminded me of a science fiction movie where the monster arrives and everyone panics and runs amok.

Greg

 

[kennyp2339]

I do the bare minimum as far as emergency alerts, I pay attention to the sky, the weather and know what potentially may happen, I use a common sense approach.
I prefer to be dialed back some, I don't need to be in the mainstream loop because it will make you crazy. My biggest potential for catastrophe is a CO leak or chimney fire, both of which I go to great lengths to prevent by using detectors and making sure my appliances are in tip top shape.
As far as the Nuclear plant goes, I would think by the time a warning goes out it would be to late in the game or very minor. I don't trust big energy (think of who I work for) to be transparent enough in an emergency to alert the public at the beginning of an emergency event.
So that sums it up for me, all of this is bringing back a funny memory I have from when I bought my first house, as a joke I hung a juffy pop popcorn, a few of my friends were puzzled, I told them that howe

 

[Squirrely]

I don't trust big energy (think of who I work for) to be transparent enough in an emergency to alert the public at the beginning of an emergency event.

That reminds me of a movie ( I think it was Grosse Pointe Blank) where the advice is offered never to get into a government vehicle if they use the words "safe" or "secure".

So that sums it up for me, all of this is bringing back a funny memory I have from when I bought my first house, as a joke I hung a juffy pop popcorn, a few of my friends were puzzled, I told them that howe

That's clever! Dark humor is sometimes the best response to potential calamity.

Greg

 

[fbelec]

i don't know about your area but i just downloaded a weather app from a local tv station. the thing works better and faster than the weather channel or weather underground. it also has the option of warnings. i choose what to have warn me. long story short see if you can configure the warnings in a way that will serve you.

 

[fbelec]

for you mass people channel 5 weather app wcvb works great

 

[blades]

Civil alert sirens - blow the dang things everyday at noon- yea they fire them off for tornado warnings and such but by that time I' already read the sky and have a pretty good idea what is coming down the pipe. Course i am not your typical 9-5 office or factory job person either.

 

[velvetfoot]

So, there are some thunderstorms in the area. One TV station not only occupies 20 percent of the screen with two chyrons and a radar map, but now, in a new wrinkle, preempts the sound of the program with a computerized readout of the chyron, making the program now totally unwatchable. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

 

[Ashful]

My house alarm went off twice tonight, scared the hell out of us the first time, assuming it was a house fire. Both times, it was tornado warnings. We have had more tornado warnings in the last year, than actual recorded tornados in the 350-year history of our area.

 

[Easy Livin’ 3000]

I thought the same thing last night with all the alerts on the tube while I was trying to enjoy Dr. Phil. I spent the entire night cowering in the bathtub worried that a tornado was going to hit the house, and we barely even had a brief rain event.

 

[Easy Livin’ 3000]

Yes, but the ironic thing is, we don't have earthquakes, or wildfires, or mudslides, or even typically bad storms. We had one bad storm in the 1980's (Gloria), and then again in 2012 (Sandy). We once in my lifetime had a very small tornado, by the legal definition, but too small to cause much carnage.

As far as the nuke plant goes, the emergency alert system was my "plan", before this very recent use of using it to warn us about every thunderstorm that rolls thru. At the same time, I'm about 10 miles away, so I fall right on the edge of the emergency siren system they have installed around such plants. If there's ever an issue, they will sound those sirens. Having heard them tested a few times, there is no missing or mistaking what is happening, they seem to have been designed to wake the dead.

I was on a walk one day, and happened to be right next to one of the sirens for said-nuclear power plant when the routine monthly sounding occurred. OH MY GOD it was loud! It caused a psychological-emotional reaction that I've not experienced before. And, there's a house right next to it. I think it's something like 2:00 pm on the first Monday every month. I hope they are normally at work.