Working together for weather warnings

A couple of weeks ago, a warning siren in the neighborhood went off around 10 a.m. — a false alarm, as it turned out. The next day, the countywide network of sirens was successfully tested.

Cruising into another severe storm season, which in Missouri peaks in May, brings us around to another discussion of preparedness and the tools we have to work with. Of particular interest: warning thousands of students living in dozens of housing units that have sprung up over the past few years. Some of those aren’t far from the track of the Southridge tornado in November 1998. There’s good news, though. With the ubiquitous smartphone, you’re carrying the future of the notification process in your hand.

A throwback to the bad old days of the Cold War, sirens were sprinkled around larger cities during the ‘50s to warn of an incoming enemy attack. Now warning sirens are deployed against another enemy: severe storms and tornadoes. Sirens join newer, electronic tools in the local authorities’ quiver of alerting capabilities when severe weather approaches the area.

Siren deployment has naturally raised certain questions in the public mind, mostly about coverage. Some wonder why the entire countywide network of screamers goes off when only a small area may be directly affected by whatever is approaching.

There are more technical questions — and doubts. Is there a source of reliable back-up power if the main power supply fails? How secure is the radio link that commands each siren from Joint Communications headquarters?

Television and radio weather alerts

Electronic weather alerts are provided by local TV and radio stations, cable providers and the closest National Weather Service FM radio station near Prairie Home. There’s plenty of competition, and a little cooperation.

TV stations vie for our attention with their line-up of staff meteorologists, internal and external radar tracking equipment and all the graphic gewgaws money can buy to tell us what’s going on. Radio stations either pony up with otherwise un-affiliated TV partners or go it alone, such as KRES in Moberly has been doing with an in-house radar system for more than 40 years.

A more recent development is the National Weather Service’s build out of a national network of dedicated FM stations offering a continuous stream of weather information. Low-priced receivers normally muted can be set to be activated if severe weather threatens. Typically placed in the home, receivers may now be programmed to respond in a designated area and warn of threatening weather.

Power, portability and ubiquity

As a technically-minded iconoclast, I wonder about a number of potential pitfalls that still exist in the process of alerting and advising the public about any emergency.

They are power, portability and ubiquity.

For power, every one of these marvelous alerting tools requires electricity. Don’t assume continuity of service from normal suppliers. Power can fail. Reliable back-up power must be available — and it is — for government entities such as Joint Communications and the public safety agencies it supports.

In the private sector, though, what’s the status of back-up power at various TV and radio stations, both at the studio and transmitter? How backed up are the telephone companies and cable providers, and is there a back-up power supply for the Weather Service station on the other side of the Missouri River? Just because a generator may be in place doesn’t mean it will work when needed. And one wonders how often these back-up sources are checked.

Then there’s portability. At home, most of us are surrounded by alerting devices: TV and radio receivers, a weather radio, smartphones and computers. Still, we have to be paying attention and alert to incoming messages, which are though often vague on specifics and prone to interruption in some cases if the power fails. Being away from home, however, places us at the mercy of sirens where proximate, and maybe the radio in various forms. Here is where our ultimate savior — the smartphone — comes into play.

Smartphone solution

The smartphone brings us to ubiquity. Severe weather alert applications are already available from a number of sources to warn us when storms approach. Now in the process of adoption nationally is the Personal Localized Alerting Network (PLAN), a joint effort involving FEMA, the FCC and the principal cellular telephone providers. Here is a system bound only by the constraints of cell phone network coverage that will alert every smartphone in a given area — whether or not in use — when severe weather threatens.

Aside from its obvious utility for travelers, the smartphone alert function would certainly address the concern about visitors or others passing through and the tens of thousands of students among us. This raises questions about what safety procedures are in place for visitors or students residing in dozens of wood-frame structures with no basements or other apparent safe areas.

Weather-warning war room

Finally, here’s a wish for something attainable — although perhaps politically unpalatable at first — that would be developed and supervised by the Joint Communications Center. In the interest of public safety, the time has come to discard various rivalries to create and staff a joint command weather emergency war room that unites in one place area broadcasters, meteorologists, amateur radio operators, weather spotters and the Joint Communications staff.

The audio and video output of this facility would be available to anyone ranging from television and radio stations to various Internet purveyors as personnel — in some cases, competitors — work side by side to represent a unified, one-voice picture of what is going on.

In the aftermath of Joplin and other recent tornadic calamities, the time has come to move forward and unify our efforts with one voice for all in the interest of everyone’s safety.