NDAA passed: Internet and Online Streaming Services Emergency Alert Study

Tue Jan 5 04:23:32 UTC 2021

Once upon a time, Billy Crook <BCrook at unrealservers.net> said:
> On a technical note (having read the comment about overloading the system)
> could a system like DNS help handle this?

I wouldn't think so, because some of the important alerts are very time
sensitive.  It's been mentioned several times in this thread that the
earthquake alerts are on the order of 10 seconds in advance.  I know
someone that survived a tornado by a few seconds (the time it took to
get out of bed and get to the bedroom door as the tornado dropped the
second floor of the house on the bed).

To be useful for the worst events, they need to be push, and push in
very short order.  And since those are the alerts most likely to be
life-saving, those are what the system needs to be built for (or what's
the point).

And to the point of the weather service sending out more alerts than in
the past: yes, they do.  To some extent, it's better radars and software
to find hazards; they're also learning all the time to better identify
what is and is not a threat (so there are storms that might have had a
warning 10 years ago that might not today).  But I'll take extra alerts
now and then... a friend died in a tornado years ago because the warning
came after it was on the ground (and probably after they were dead).

-- 
Chris Adams <cma at cmadams.net>