The EAS system’s flaw – since everything needs a “point”, the point behind the series of EAS polls is that other than for local emergencies (like tornados), the EAS serves no useful purpose, and even then it is of limited value. The only mandatory activation of the EAS is by the White House for a national emergency.
On September 11th 2001, the EAS system was not activated in the circumstances most relevant to why it was created – there was a national attack of unknown size against governmental and economic targets in the United States, during which timely action could have saved lives.
There are two main problems – first is that making a determination that an emergency exists and formulating a coherent message and what to do about it is very hard to do. The people with the most accurate information were busy reacting to the threat (i.e. ordering an unprecedented order to the FAA to force all airplanes to immediately land), not communicating to civilians to do things like evacuate the South Tower of the WTC. It has been said that another reason was that people making EAS type decisions were watching TV coverage to learn what was going on, and activating national EAS would have cut off their access to see that live information.
The second bigger problem is – would notifying the public (and the related panic) create more damage than keeping the public in the dark? In my most extreme hypothetical – a nuclear weapon found that might explode – that would create mass panic. The roads would clog with civilians trying to “escape” to a safe place when there probably is no such thing…. the clogged roads, instinct to pick up the phone and call people, and rush for emergency supplies would impair the ability of people with an ability to prevent or mitigate the disaster (response teams, local government officials, doctors, military) from being able to get where they need to go or communicate effectiveely as phone lines jam.
If we can’t define a scenario where EAS would actually be used and be useful, why is it such a high priority of the Federal government?
