EAS ACCOUNTABILITY

Fine. I get it.

We had a National Emergency Alert System test.

This test was designed to check out the operability of a system that was installed back in 1996, and to date had never been tested for functionality or operability.

Yesterday, at 2:00 PM Eastern, A National Emergency Alert was issued. According to policy, this can only be issued by the President. FEMA and FCC conducted this test under the following scenerio:
1) Normal methods by which other weather and emergency warnings reach us were to be disabled (i.e. EMNET).
2) The Normal test for this, which would have been the NPT (National Periodic Test), was not utilized. Instead, they issued an actual emergency code of EAN (Emergency Action Notification).
3) An EAN is the only code that does not automatically terminate with an EOM (End of Message), as it is intended to keep the system running until it is turned off by an EAT (Emergency Action Termination). There would not be an EAT sent at all.
4) The Washington DC code was sent instead of the national code of 00000.
5) Last minute changes were trickled out to broadcasters via various websites and webinars, but there was no official public forum on this event.
(information can be found at: http://www.nws.noaa.gov/os/NWS_EAS.shtml)

So how did it turn out?

Homeland Security Director Millicent West said there were glitches, but that’s why they run tests.

In reality - it was a disaster of epic proportions.

More than 30,000 communications carriers across the country were involved in the test, to include radio and TV broadcasters, cable operators, satellite operators, and wireline video-service providers. They all cooperated within their limited ability to make the test as successful as possible.

In many places Nationwide, it aired normally. However, in many places, the signal was cut off, garbled, or with major hum in the background. Reports come back from the LP1's of the various states that that is the way they received the signal, and since they were merely repeating what they received, that is what they passed on to others.

What went wrong? Why wasn't it as flawless as it should have been? Lets look at the situation and place the blame squarely where it should go!

THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT went over 20 years without testing the system. Therefore, in many places - there was 20 year old untested equipment expected to work flawlessly. Right. Like that is going to happen. The Government, at the last minute, changed the rules. THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT sent a flawed signal (as can be attested to by LP1 entry points across the nation) out into the wild. THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT changed the rules - using codes that were never intended to be used. THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT