A Texas county rejected siren alert systems in the past due to high costs. But after recent flash floods, state and local officials face renewed questions.
Sirens are outdated and unreliable. The EAS has relied primarily on mobile devices for 10+ years.
Alerts were issued. The problem was that the flood waters rose faster and much, much higher than in typical storms. So the usual precautions they take for typical floods were completely inadequate for this one.
Sirens definitely aren’t outdated. The goal is to alert people who are outside. Emergency alerts use phones too, but the sirens still help alert the people who may not otherwise have a phone or be actively checking theirs; many people even have alerts totally disabled, because authorities got so spammy with the amber alerts.
many people even have alerts totally disabled, because authorities got so spammy with the amber alerts.
At least amber alerts are actual emergencies. I can hear sirens for three different jurisdictions. They all test them on different days and different times, and then use them for routine weather conditions, so nobody actually pays any attention to them. Then they just fail to use any of them when two tornadoes do actually pass through town.
Obviously, YMMV. But in my experience, sirens are worse than useless.
WEA alerts, on the other hand, are extremely reliable.
Sirens are outdated and unreliable. The EAS has relied primarily on mobile devices for 10+ years.
Alerts were issued. The problem was that the flood waters rose faster and much, much higher than in typical storms. So the usual precautions they take for typical floods were completely inadequate for this one.
Sirens definitely aren’t outdated. The goal is to alert people who are outside. Emergency alerts use phones too, but the sirens still help alert the people who may not otherwise have a phone or be actively checking theirs; many people even have alerts totally disabled, because authorities got so spammy with the amber alerts.
At least amber alerts are actual emergencies. I can hear sirens for three different jurisdictions. They all test them on different days and different times, and then use them for routine weather conditions, so nobody actually pays any attention to them. Then they just fail to use any of them when two tornadoes do actually pass through town.
Obviously, YMMV. But in my experience, sirens are worse than useless.
WEA alerts, on the other hand, are extremely reliable.